PATNA: The Bihar government on Thursday claimed that the death of BJP functionary Vijay Kumar Singh during the party’s Vidhan Sabha march on July 13 happened due to cardiac ailments. A statement in this regard was issued by the district administration in the evening. The BJP has been claiming that Singh died due to police excesses.
As per the post-mortem report made available by Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), histopathological examination was conducted by the institute to know the exact cause of death of Vijay Singh, a resident of Jehanabad. After thorough investigation, the medical board opined that the death was due to heart disease and complications related to it, the district administration has stated.
To support its claim, the district administration has further stated that it was also clear from the CCTV footage that the incident of fainting of the deceased BJP functionary took place between 1:22pm and 1:27pm in Chajju Bagh area, while the lathi charge, on the other hand, occurred at Dak Bungalow crossing area.
However, the BJP refuted the claims made by the district administration. State BJP president Samrat Choudhary has demanded the video footage of the post-mortem. “State government is doing a mere whitewash on the incident. It took eight days for the government to come out with the post-mortem report. Moreover, late Vijay Singh was completely healthy and had no health complications. We would investigate the matter from our end as well, for which we will seek the video footage of the postmortem,” Choudhary told TOI.
JD(U) on the other hand, accused the BJP of trying to gain political mileage over their functionary’s death. “This has been the common practice of BJP. Even in 2013, when six people had died in a terror attack in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Gandhi Maidan, he had promised to give jobs and look after the family of the deceased but nothing happened. They are doing the same this time as well. They tend to play with the sentiments of their workers and supporters to gain political mileage,” JD (U) MLC and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.
