Patna, May 13: Deputy chief minister Tejaswi today alleged that a Union minister from Bihar had pressurised Delhi police to issue a licence to Rocky Yadav, while Gaya police say it was an IPS officer.
Asked if he was pointing a finger at the UPA, which was in power in 2013 when the licence was issued and is now part of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar, Tejaswi said: "Many BJP leaders had joined the Congress and later became ministers during the UPA regime. I do not know the name. It is a matter of investigation and Government of India must clarify its stand."
He was speaking at Patna airport on his return from New Delhi.
"I have come to know from news reports that Delhi police did not check with Gaya police before issuing the licence despite provision for police verification of an applicant's permanent address," Tejaswi said. "I want to ask which central minister from Bihar, presssured Delhi police to issue the licence in this manner."
A police team from Gaya sent to New Delhi to inquire how Rocky got a firearm licence in 2013 learnt that an IPS officer based there had helped him with a recommendation. In the licence application, police sources said, Rocky stated he worked for Ramaiyya Construction (a company owned by his father) in Maoist-affected Chatra district of Jharkhand and needed the firearm for his security. He also attached a certificate saying he was a National Rifle Association of India member and, thus, eligible for a firearm licence.
Delhi Police have initiated steps to cancel Rocky's licence after he allegedly shot dead Aditya Sachdeva in a road rage case. Gaya district magistrate Kumar Ravi, too, has recommended cancellation of three gun licences owned by Manorama Devi and one by Bindi Yadav. The Gaya administration had issued these licenses.
The Telegraph had earlier reported that Rakesh Ranjan, better known as Rocky, had received his licence on the recommendation of someone in the Union ministry.
Sources in the Delhi police had earlier said it was difficult to comprehend how Rocky got an arms licence - given his father Bindi Yadav's criminal antecedents - as an arms licence is issued only after rigorous background checks and thorough scrutiny of the applicant's security requirement, besides background of the applicant's parents and family members.
Rakshit Sharma, secretary-general of the National Association for Gun Rights in India, said the police should have checked Rocky's father's antecedents before granting him the arms licence.
"I am not dragging anyone. Just asking who pressurised Delhi police to issue the licence," Tejaswi said when asked if it was justified to drag the Centre into the incident.
"If Bihar police had committed a similar offence, the Opposition would have created havoc by now. Whenever an incident takes place in Bihar, the Opposition calls it return of Jungle Raj. What happened in BJP-ruled Haryana? Para-military forces were called upon to calm the situation. Mass rape was committed. Was that not Jungle Raj?
"The BJP does not have any work other than politicising the issue," RJD chief Lalu Prasad said in Patna before heading for Godda, Jharkhand, to campaign for a bypoll there
Additional reporting by Dev Raj
