A man belonging to a fringe Hindu outfit tried to immolate himself in front of the Bihar Police headquarters here on Thursday accusing the state government of "falsely implicating" people in a murder case to appease Muslims.
Rajiv Brahmarshi had announced his intention to immolate himself through a video posted on social media and as a result, the police were prepared.
He was caught by some police personnel as soon as he lit the fire, bundled into a waiting ambulance and whisked away to a nearby hospital, an officer present at the spot told the media.
"We received inputs about a man threatening to immolate himself here. As a precautionary measure, police personnel and magistrates were deployed in front of the Sardar Patel Bhawan (the Bihar Police HQ) at Bailey Road here," the official said.
"The man has been caught in time. Further action will be taken in accordance with the law," he said.
In the video clip, Brahmarshi complained about Hindu activists being "falsely implicated" in cases like the Phulwari Sharif incident for the "politics of Muslim appeasement".
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Violence had rocked the Haroon Nagar locality of Phulwari Sharif Police Station area on December 21, last year during a state-wide bandh by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to protest against the CAA-NPR-NRC.
A 17-year-old boy had gone missing that day and his body was found from a water-filled pit covered with hyacinth a week later.
Locals had claimed that some pro-Hindutva activists had pounced upon the boy for allegedly shouting slogans while holding a tricolour. Several persons belonging to fringe Hindu outfits were arrested in connection with the incident.
One of these outfits -- 'Hindu Putra', which purportedly has its registered office in the city's Ashiana Nagar locality, had issued a release about Brahmarshi's self-immolation bid and described him as the sanrakshak (patron) of the organisation.
Brahmarshi had claimed in the video that recently he along with some top office-bearers of 'Shri Ram Sena' had gone to the JD(U) state headquarters to meet party leader Sanjay Gandhi, a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, with the request for intervention at the highest level.
Gandhi had frowned at the sight of the Hindu activists and curtly told them to leave and try their luck with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is a BJP leader, he had claimed.
We were appalled. It was not that we had gone there with an anti-Muslim agenda. All that we wanted was a fair and impartial probe. We have to run from pillar to post meeting parliamentarians and top bureaucrats. But there seems to be no way out of this harassment as the government is busy with its politics of Muslim appeasement, he alleged.
We find ourselves driven against the wall. I am therefore going to give up my life by setting myself on fire in front of the police headquarters, Brahmarshi added.