Bihar polls: RJD’s Sasaram candidate arrested after filing nomination

RJD candidate Satendra Sah was arrested immediately after filing his nomination papers from Bihar’s Sasaram Assembly seat, officials said.

Officers of the police station concerned maintained that Sah was apprehended by the Jharkhand Police as a non-bailable warrant (NBW) was pending against him. His supporters were clueless about the developments.

“As Sah reached the office of the circle officer concerned on Monday to file his nomination papers from Sasaram seat, the Jharkhand Police officers arrived there to execute an NBW which was pending against him. He was allowed to file his nomination papers… But soon after, he was arrested,” a senior police officer of Rohtas district said.

The Jharkhand Police said he was an accused in a 2004 bank robbery case at Chirounjiya More in Garhwa district.

Sunil Tiwari, officer-in-charge of Sadar police station in Jharkhand’s Garhwa, said, “A permanent warrant was issued against Satendra Sah in that case in 2018. Police records indicate that more than 20 cases related to robbery, dacoity, and violations of the Arms Act are pending against him in various police stations.”

This was the third such incident of contesting candidates of the constituents of the INDIA bloc being arrested after filing their nomination papers in the Bihar polls.

Prior to this, CPI(ML) Liberation’s candidates from Bhore and Darauli seats, Jitendra Paswan and Satyadeo Ram, respectively, were arrested after filing their nomination papers.

CPI(ML) Liberation has issued a statement condemning the arrests.

“We strongly condemn the politically motivated arrests of Comrade Jitendra Paswan and Comrade Satyadeo Ram… They were arrested right outside the nomination centres immediately after filing their papers.

“These arrests, under fabricated and baseless charges, clearly reveal the fear and panic among the NDA leaders, who feel threatened by the rising assertion of the masses and the people’s determination to bring change in Bihar,” the party had said.

“Unable to confront the growing anger against its failed ‘double-engine’ government”, the BJP-JD(U) alliance is resorting to “repression, intimidation, and misuse of police and administrative machinery to silence democratic opposition and suppress people’s voices”, it had alleged.

The 243-member Bihar Assembly will go to polls in two phases on November 6 and 11, with results set to be announced on November 14.

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