Former union minister Yashwant Sinha, who will have to remain in a Hazaribagh jail for another 12 days after he refused to submit a bail bond again, will have a VIP visitor tomorrow. (File photo)
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, arrested in Jharkhand 13 days ago, will spend another 12 days in jail in Hazaribagh, the constituency which he represented in Parliament and which elected his son in the recent national election.
Tomorrow, another veteran BJP leader, LK Advani, is scheduled to visit him in jail. Even though Mr Sinha has been languishing in jail for a fortnight now, none of the central BJP leaders, sources close to Mr Sinha said, have bothered to pay him a visit so far. He had injured himself on June 13, when he fell after the chair on which he was sitting broke.
Mr Sinha, 76, a former union minister, was arrested for leading a demonstration against power cuts in June. The group of BJP workers he was with tied up a senior electricity board official. The cops intervened to rescue the official and then detained Mr Sinha and 50 others.
Mr Sinha has refused to pay the bail needed for his release. Today, once again, Mr Sinha refused to furnish bail. The charges against him include assaulting a government servant and obstructing his work.
The case will next be heard on June 28.
In court, Mr Sinha has admitted that it was on his orders that the official was tied up. The BJP leader's insistence on not paying bail has led to many suggesting that he is pulling an "Arvind Kejriwal."
Last month, Mr Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, was arrested in a defamation case filed against him by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. Mr Kejriwal, often described as an innovative and habitual disruptor, spent six days in jail after refusing to pay bail.