Prashant Kishor arrested amid hunger strike to support BPSC exam protesters

The Bihar Police on early Monday arrested Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor, who was sitting on an indefinite hunger strike at Gandhi Maidan in Patna, PTI reported.

Police personnel removed him and his supporters from the protest site. 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 Jan Suraaj founder has been fast unto death since Thursday 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.

The protests, sparked by allegations of irregularities in the BPSC examination, have intensified after the government announced a re-examination, which Kishor claimed was an acknowledgement of the errors that had taken place.

“By conducting the re-examination, the government has legally accepted that irregularities have happened with certain students in the examination,” Kishor told ANI on Sunday.

He also pressed on the importance of addressing the issue swiftly for the welfare of the students, adding, “The chief minister (Nitish Kumar) should meet the students regarding their demands, this is in the interest of the state.”

Kishor had also sought the support of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav in the cancellation of the BPSC exam.

“These leaders are much bigger than us. They can get five lakh people to gather at the Gandhi Maidan…this is the time to do so. The future of the youth is at stake. We are faced with a brutal regime which has ordered lathi charge 87 times in just three years,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

Earlier, the district administration filed an FIR against Kishor and his “150 supporters,” asserting that the protest at the site was “illegal.”

BPSC controversy: Why students are protesting?

The 70th Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) held on December 13 has been in the eye of a storm over allegations of leak of question papers, which has been denied by the BPSC.

A fresh test was ordered for 12,000 candidates, who had appeared for the exam at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar centre in Patna on Saturday. However, according to a press release shared by the commission, only 5,943 candidates have appeared for the examination.

The protesting students in Patna are demanding the cancellation of the examination.