Tejashwi meets boy allegedly assaulted over PM birthday video; BJP denies claim

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Saturday met a 12-year-old boy who alleged he was assaulted by youths after filming mustard-oil lamps lit during an event marking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday in Patna on September 17.

Yadav, the leader of the opposiiton, accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters of manhandling the child and alleged that police pressured him to change his statement, charges the BJP rejected as fabricated.

In a video of his interaction with the boy, Yadav took details of how the incident happened and also listened to the boy’s allegation as how he was manhandled by some youths at the site of the incident and later was put off the railing.

“The cops later also put pressure on the boy to give a statement that those who had manhandled him were his friends and together they work for the BJP. Police even intimidated the boy to give a statement that there was no assault or otherwise, he would have to spend a night in the police station. This is the situation in Bihar where a 12 year old boy is assaulted by BJP sponsored goons and even locked up in police station for just making a video of lamps lit by mustard oil to mark PM’s birthday,” Yadav said.

In the video posted by Yadav, the boy is also heard telling the opposition leader his ordeal of being allegedly assaulted on September 17 for doing a video of the ‘wastefullness’ of mustard oil for lighting lamps.

“The kind of oil consumed in lighting diyas would have enough for us to make puris for my entire village. I just made a video and was assaulted by the party men of BJP. The BJP party men assaulted me and later the administration also came and took me off,” the boy told the opposition leader. The boy also claimed he was in standard five and academic activities in his village had been affected by recent flood. He lives in a locality in Patna.

“We will take action and ensure that those involved in the incident are punished,” the opposition leader assured the boy.

BJP state spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel said the video of the boy’s allegations was totally false and created with malicious intent to defame the BJP.

“The opposition leader should behave more maturely instead of trying to get some publicity out of certain fabricated videos. It would be better if Yadav visits flood-hit areas more, including his own constituency, where he has spent just a few hours during floods for a photo op and has done little for the flood-hit victims. The opposition leader is making all baseless allegations as he is unnerved with the popularity of our Prime Minister and the BJP,” Patel said.