BPSC exam row: Prashant Kishor arrested in Patna

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor. Pic/PTI

The officials said that Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor, who had been on a fast unto death at Gandhi Maidan in Patna to press the demand for cancellation of a Bihar PSC exam, was arrested early on Monday, reported news agency PTI.

Police personnel removed him and his supporters from the protest site for the BPSC exam row. According to supporters of Kishor, the police took him to Patna AIIMS for a medical examination.

Talking to PTI, Patna, District Magistrate (DM), Chandrashekhar Singh, said, "Yes, Kishor and his supporters sitting on dharna at Gandhi Maidan, were arrested by the police on Monday morning. They will now be produced before a court."

Their dharna was "illegal", he said, adding they were holding the sit-in near the restricted site, he added.

The Patna Police had registered a case against Kishor for holding the fast unto death at Gandhi Maidan, a restricted site near Mahatma Gandhi statute, another official told PTI.

Kishor began his fast unto death on January 2 in support of the civil service aspirants who have been demanding the cancellation of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) examination held on December 13 last year.

However, the BPSC had ordered the retest for a select group of candidates who had appeared in the December 13 exam, which was embroiled over allegations of question paper leak.

The retest was held on Saturday at 22 centres.

Of 12,012 candidates, around 8,111 aspirants had downloaded their admit cards for the re-exam.

However, 5,943 candidates appeared for the retest on January 4.

The retest was held peacefully at all centres without report of any misconduct and malpractices, the BPSC said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Earlier on Sunday, Prashant Kishor sat down with protesting students at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. He also urged the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav to lead the protest as he is a "tall" leader and also the Leader of Opposition (LoP).

Kishor was responding to remarks made by the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister. He stated that Yadav, being the LoP, should have taken the lead in the protest instead of him.

"He (Tejashwi Yadav) is a tall leader. He is also the LoP. He should have led the protests. I have been telling them to lead the protest. We will step aside. He said that he was coming to Gandhi Maidan with five lakh people. Students (and their issues) should be talked about. Politics can happen whenever. We don't have any party banner here. We care about the agenda of the students," the Jan Suraaj founder told reporters.

"This is not a dharna. This is the passion of the people of Bihar to better their conditions, to secure a better future. In this cold weather, some are singing and you can see people from across the board sitting here. I am tired of answering accusations. Look around, and spot the vanity van if you can. We will sleep here too," Kishor said.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)