FIR against R J D Chief Lalu for ‘casteist’ remarks
HAJIPUR (Bihar): An FIR was lodged against RJD president Lalu Prasad on Tuesday for making allegedly casteist remarks as the Election Commission prima facie found them violative of the model of conduct for Assembly elections in Bihar.
The FIR was registered with the Ganga Bridge police station in Vaishali district against Mr. Prasad by Circle Officer Raghopur Neeranjan Kumar in connection with his “casteist” remark, Vaishali district SP Rakesh Kumar told Reporters.
The Circle Officer, who was deputed as magistrate during the election meeting of the RJD chief on Sunday for his son Tejaswi Yadav in Raghopur, was ordered by Vaishali District Magistrate Rachna Patil to get a case registered over the issue.
Launching his campaign from Raghopur, the RJD leader had described the Assembly elections as a direct fight between “the backward castes and forward castes” and gave a call to Yadavs and other backward castes to rally behind the secular alliance to defeat the BJP-led NDA.
Additional Chief Election Officer R. Lakshamanan said that the case was registered against the RJD chief on the basis of video footage of his utterances at a political meeting in Raghopur on Sunday.
The footage showed violation of model code and provision of Representation of Peoples Act hence a case has been registered, Mr. Lakshamanan said.
Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had on Monday said that any casteist remark was a breach of EC guidelines and the panel would deal with such matters under its legal framework.
He had also said the Election Commission would find out the details of the alleged casteist remarks by Mr. Prasad and take appropriate action.
