Patna/Bhagalpur: A Bhagalpur court on Tuesday rejected the regular bail plea of BJP leader Arjit Shashwat, the son of union minister Ashwini Choubey.

Arjit was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on April 1 after being arrested on charges of fuelling social tension in the Silk City on March 17, prior to Ram Navami celebrations.

The court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM)-I, Anjani Kumar Srivastava, heard Arjit's bail plea filed through his lawyer Biresh Mishra and rejected it on Tuesday afternoon.

Arjit is currently lodged in Jubba Sahni central jail and was brought to the court under heavy police escort.

The court area resembled a fortified place with police deployed at every nook and corner. BJP workers and supporters were banned from entering the court, and the entire arrangement was being personally monitored by Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police Manoj Kumar.

According to Mishra, the defence pleaded that Arjit was innocent and the police had fabricated the case against him. It also pointed that the police were the informant and the witness in the case, while no common person was produced as witness. Neither was any common man brought forward as an injured or complainant in the said case of violence.

Sources close to Arjit said he would now move the court of the Bhagalpur district and sessions judge for regular bail on April 4. His lawyers are also exploring the possibility of moving Patna High Court for relief on health grounds as he is said to be suffering from kidney stones.

The police conducted a series of raids and nabbed five persons who are co-accused with Arjit in the case from Jagdishpur, around 10km south from Bhagalpur. Three other co-accused in the case are still absconding.

"The arrested persons are Abhay Kumar Ghosh alias Sonu, Pramod Verma alias Pammi, Dev Kumar Pandey alias Dewanba, Niranjan Singh and Surendra Pathak. They were moving around Bhagalpur in a vehicle. They were produced in the court and have been sent to 14 days' judicial custody," the Bhagalpur SSP said.

Three others, who are among the 12 named accused in a similar case pertaining to damaging social harmony, surrendered before the court of the ACJM-I, which forwarded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The police have also registered another FIR against 20 unknown persons and five women BJP activists for obstructing them from discharging their duty when Arjit was being produced in a Bhagalpur court on Sunday.