An MLA of the beleaguered Bihar Congress, who has demanded that the party high command make him the State unit chief, has been booked for extortion, assault and illegal detention of an executive engineer in Buxar.
The case against Sanjay Tiwari was lodged by Rajendra Prasad, an executive engineer of the Building Construction Department.
Mr. Tiwari, however, said that the case was “politically motivated and fabricated”.
As per the FIR, the MLA had come to Mr Prasad’s house on September 18 and allegedly tried to extort money from him. The MLA also allegedly hurled abuses at the engineer.
Later, the legislator’s bodyguards thrashed him and then locked him in a room. “They let me free when I agreed to pay them the money and award contractual work to the MLA’s supporters,” Mr. Prasad said in his police report.
“A case has been registered against Mr. Tiwari under Sections 332, 353, 385 (extortion), 504, 506 and 34 of the IPC... the investigation is on,” said Inspector of Buxar police station Dayanand Prasad.
“Action will be taken against those found guilty,” said District Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar.
While rubbishing the allegations, Mr. Tiwari told reporters: “I’m young and if the party high command appoints me as the Bihar Congress chief it will help galvanise upper case Brahmins to vote for the party.”
The Bihar unit of the Congress has been plagued with internal wrangling and a split appears imminent as most of the MLAs have reportedly decided to join the ruling party Janata Dal (United).
The State unit chief, Ashok Choudhury, has said that the high command must decide soon on whether he has to continue in the post.
Party sources told The Hindu that Mr. Choudhury is the group leader of all the MLAs who may defect.
Meanwhile, the Engineers’ Association of the State has expressed concern over the assault and intimidation of Mr. Prasad. “The assault is not an isolated one and we’ve decided to call a meeting soon to decide the future course of action,” said Association members.
