Uttarakhand BJP MLA booked for misbehaving with officials

MLA from Salt, Mahesh Jeena, allegedly pressured the civic body to secure a tender for his aide

Uttarakhand BJP MLA Mahesh Jeena. | Photo Credit: X@mjeenabjp

BJP MLA from Salt constituency in Almora district of Uttarakhand, Mahesh Jeena, was booked on charges of rioting, criminal intimidation, insulting and obstructing public servant from discharging his duties after he allegedly misbehaved with Dehradun Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar and few other employees of the civic body.

The action came after the video of the fracas between the MLA and the Municipal Commissioner went viral on social media in which Mr. Jeena can be seen misbehaving with senior officials, and using offensive language, allegedly after his aide’s bid in a government tender was declined.

The Indian Administrative Services Association (IAS) has condemned the incident and denounced it as “illegal interference” in the executive’s legal processes.

“Salt MLA has misbehaved and abused the officials and employees of the Doon civic body,” a letter from the IAS association reads, which said undue pressure was exerted by the MLA to influence the tender in favour of his family members.

“...there was undue interference in government work and the working environment of the office was adversely affected. This type of indecent act causes illegal interference in the legal process of the executive machinery, and also has an adverse effect on the morale of the employees/officers,” the letter reads.

“A case has been registered on the complaint by Yashpal Singh, Secretary, Municipal Corporation Drivers Association, under Sections 147/186/504/506 of the IPC against the MLA for abusing municipal corporation employees and senior officials and threatening to kill them and obstructing government work,” a communique from the Dehradun Police said.

Miffed with the MLA’s act, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey to investigate the matter.

Mr. Jeena alleged that he had gone to the municipal corporation office to escalate a complaint given to him by a company whose owners said they were illegally barred from participating in the tender process.

“I was told that the civic body officials put unnecessary clauses in tender. I was only talking about this complaint and nothing else,” he added.