PATNA: Patna SSP Rajeev Mishra on Thursday said the BJP functionary Vijay Kumar Singh who died in the state capital, was not injured in police lathicharge as he did not go to the Dak Bungalow roundabout where police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the party workers.
"As per the scientific investigation and scanning of many video footages of different locations, it has come to the light that Vijay, who was a native of Jehanabad, never reached the Dak Bungalow roundabout where the incident of lathicharge happened. Two persons accompanying Singh have also told the police that they did not go to the Dak Bungalow roundabout. They have told police that they changed their mind to go to the Dak bungalow from the Gandhi Maidan after they came to know that there were police barricading at the roundabout," the SSP said.
"In one of the video footage, Singh and both the persons accompanying him, are seen moving in Chajju Bagh locality through the Gandhi Maidan-Chajju Bagh Road at 13.22 pm in complete healthy condition and while talking to each other. The rickshaw through which he was taken to a nearby hospital was also being seen in the same CCTV footage at 13.27 pm. Local eyewitnesses told police that Vijay was seen lying on the road near an electric transformer, around 50 meters away from the CCTV camera," the SSP said while ruling out the possibility of his injury in the police lathicharge.
"After that Vijay’s friends took him to a nearby hospital by the rickshaw. We presume that the rickshaw might have taken five to six minutes in reaching the nearby hospital. The incident of his fainting might have taken place between 13.23 pm to 13.27 pm. The footage also revealed that no policemen are being seen around Vijay or around the rickshaw. There was no scene of any kind of stampede in the footage taken from Chajju Bagh area. Complete normal movement of traffic is being seen in the area," the SSP claimed.
Mishra also said, "Despite all these facts, the district administration observed complete transparency in conduct of postmortem of the deceased. The inquest was done by a magistrate, postmortem was conducted by a medical board under videography."
The SSP further said that altogether 59 people were detained in connection with the BJP’s protest march. All were later released from the police station.
"We also observed many footage of Dak Bungalow roundabout, in which it is clearly seen that police barricades were broken by some persons. Footage of some media houses also confirm that police barricades were broken," he said.
