Remove Bihar Deputy CM, Prashant Kishor’s JSP urges PM Modi

A day after Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder and former poll strategist Prashant Kishor levelled charges against BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Samrat Choudhary for allegedly being involved in producing a fake birth certificate to be released from jail in a murder case, and hours after Mr. Choudhary told the media that the court had already closed the case, JSP national president Uday Singh on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to “remove” Mr. Choudhary from office so that law could take its own course.

In his letter, Mr. Singh alleged that Mr. Choudhary evaded conviction in a 1995 massacre case in which six persons were killed by misrepresenting his age. Earlier on September 29, Mr. Kishor had alleged that if the Chief Minister would not take any action against Mr. Choudhary, the JSP would write to the Prime Minister, the Governor and approach court to cite the facts and action against him [Mr. Choudhary]. Later, Mr. Choudhary clarified that the case was settled by court in 1997-98 and Mr. Kishor was raising the issue as he was a “novice in politics”.

As per government records, Mr. Choudhary gone to jail in the Launa- Parsa massacre in which six persons were killed and his bail petition was rejected twice. Later, he produced the matriculation certificate which showed his age as 15 and he came out of jail on the ground of being a minor, Mr. Singh said in his letter to the Prime Minister. “However, in election affidavits later, Mr. Choudhary declared his year of birth as 1969, which would make him 26-year-old in 1995 and this contradiction in his age proves he was released from jail at that time by producing fake documents”, Mr. Singh wrote, adding, “such actions undermine public trust in governance and the rule of law. Mr. Choudhary should be removed from office and the law be allowed to take its own course.”

“Mr. Kishor is only creating sensation by leveling such charges against me. Let the time come and he (Mr. Kishor) would know everything,” said Mr. Choudhary. BJP leaders in the State said they would send a “legal notice” to Mr. Kishor for making such a false charge against the Deputy Chief Minister.

Later, a delegation of JSP leaders led by Mr. Uday Singh went to meet Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to submit a letter seeking action against Mr. Choudhary but the Governor did not meet them. “The Governor, even after giving us time for meeting, did not meet us and we submitted our letter to his Principal Secretary”, Mr. Singh told media persons. He said if action would not be taken against Mr. Choudhary they would approach court.