Minister not stopped at legislature gate, open to probe: Bihar Home Dept

The Bihar government's Home Department on Thursday denied the claims of Labour Minister Jibesh Kumar Mishra who alleged he underwent "humiliation" at the gate of the Vidhan Sabha on Thursday.

Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Chaitanya Prasad, and DGP S.K. Singhal were called by Speaker Vijay Sinha, who asked them to undertake a thorough investigation of the incident. The officers claimed that there was no question of stopping the minister's vehicle to give smooth passage to civil and police officers.

"It could be some confusion at the time when the Minister reached the gate of Bihar Vidhan Sabha. It may be a traffic congestion arising due to the convoy of Chief Minister. Hence, his vehicle was caught in a traffic snarl," Prasad said.

"There is no question of any civil or police officer avoiding respecting the minister or daring to insult him. I cannot be sure that any officer deliberately denigrated him."

The DGP said: "Despite our assurance, if the minister is still not satisfied, we will investigate the incident. We will scan the CCTV footage of the spot to find out the claim."

Mishra on Thursday said that his SUV was stopped at the gate of the Vidhan Sabha to give uninterrupted passage to the convoy of Patna District Magistrate Chandrasekhar Singh and SSP Upendra Sharma, who used the same gate reserved for the Chief Minister, Speaker, and Ministers.

He claimed that the act of traffic personnel deployed at the gate of the Vidhan Sabha humiliated a public representative who is also a Cabinet Minister. "It is happened on the direction of the SSP and the DM. Hence, state government should suspend these two officers," he demanded.

"The convoy of Chief Minister had already passed the gate and the convoy of the DM and the SSP passed in front of me. It will come on CCTV," Mishra said.