Ranchi district administration on Friday lodged FIR against the owner and the manager of hotel Capitol Residency for allegedly offering room to former Bihar health minister and RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav during his Ranchi visit.
Tej Pratap came to Ranchi via road in the wee-hours on Thursday to meet his father and former Bihar Chief minister Lalu Prasad. He stayed at the hotel situated on Station Road under Chutia police station.
“The FIR was lodged on the written complaint of circle officer (CO), Ranchi, Prakash Kumar. The official said he had visited the hotel on Thursday around 9 PM where he found Tej Pratap staying in room number 507 of the hotel.
This is the violation of the Government order regarding Covid-19 pandemic where restrictions have been placed upon opening of hotels also. In the light of the above FIR was lodged against the manager Dushyant Kumar Samantare and owner of the hotel whose name is being verified. FIR was lodged under section 188 and 34 of IPC,” said officer-in-charge of Chutia police station Ravi Thakur.
However, Thakur had no satisfactory reply as to why Tej Pratap was exempted from the FIR.
RJD president and former Bihar CM is lodged at Kelly bungalow located on the premises of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) where he is undergoing medical treatment under judicial custody.
Before the meeting Pratap had to undergo rapid antigen test and the meeting was allowed only after he tested negative to Covid-19.
The RJD is partner in the Hemant Soren led JMM-Congress-RJD government in Jharkhand. Now leaders and workers of RJD are trying to stay away from the controversy.
“Yes, he had come to Ranchi to meet Laluji but I don’t know as to when he left for Bihar and where he actually stayed in the hotel or not,” said a senior RJD leader.
But the BJP launched attack on the state government and RJD. State BJP spokesperson, Pratul Shahdeo, shared a video on his Twitter account. He said that over 60 vehicles carrying around 300 RJD leaders and workers from Bihar and Jharkhand entered Ranchi in an open violation of social distancing. But no action was taken by the administration.
The BJP further charged RJD leaders and workers misbehaved with people on RIMS campus. The party said that as face saving exercise FIR was lodged against hotel owner and manager who have been made as a scapegoat. The party demanded explanation as to why no FIR was lodged against Tej Pratap.