Prashant Kishor, sitting on indefinite hunger strike in Patna, detained

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who was sitting on a fast unto death to press the demand for cancellation of a BPSC exam, was detained by the Patna Police in an early morning crackdown on Monday.

According to sources, Kishor was “forcibly removed” from Patna’s Gandhi Maidan and taken to AIIMS in an ambulance by the police.

A video shared by the news agency PTI showed senior officials of Patna Police forcibly removing Kishor from the hunger strike site amid fierce opposition and “Vande Mataram” slogans by his supporters.

Earlier, an FIR was also filed against Kishor and his “150 supporters” by the district administration, which has asserted that the protest at the site was “illegal”.

According to District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh, in accordance with a Patna High Court order, “no dharna can be allowed at a spot other than the designated place in Gardani Bagh”.

The Jan Suraaj founder has been fast-unto-death since Thursday, January 2, to press for the demand for cancellation of the integrated 70th combined (preliminary) competitive test conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on December 13.

However, 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 here.

The re-exam took place at 22 centres in Patna. Out of a total of 12,012 candidates, around 8,111 aspirants had downloaded their admit cards. However, 5,943 students appeared for the retest on Saturday, 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.