BJP MLA’s kin booked for holding MP official ‘hostage’
A first information report was registered on Tuesday against Anirudh Meena, brother-in-law of Chanchoda MLA Priyanka Meena of the Bharatiya Janata Party, for holding a deputy director of agriculture hostage, threatening him and demanding ₹50 lakh.
A first information report was registered on Tuesday against Anirudh Meena, brother-in-law of Chanchoda MLA Priyanka Meena of the Bharatiya Janata Party, for holding a deputy director of agriculture hostage, threatening him and demanding ₹50 lakh.
The deputy director, Ashok Kumar Upadhyay, wrote a letter to Guna superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar Sinha, to this effect. “Chachaura BJP MLA Priyanka Meena’s brother-in-law and MLA representative Anirudh Meena held me hostage for an hour and demanded ₹50 lakh,” he wrote. “He abused me.”
“A case has been registered against Anirudha Meena and an unidentified man under sections 294 (obscene act), 342 (wrongful confinement), 353 (assault and use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging their duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The investigation is going on in the matter,” said Divya Rajawat Chanchoda, subdivisional officer of police.
“Anirudh Meena called meon June 20 and said MLA Madam has called me to Penchi office. Since I was on duty for School Chalo Abhiyan, I didn’t go,” Upadhyaya said in his complaint. “I was asked to come on June 21. I reached her office along with the department’s official Tulsiram Solanki and a driver. I met Anirudh Meena there. He inquired about the availability of fertilizer. I sent him the information on WhatsApp.”
“Later, I told him that I had to go to the collector’s office for a meeting regarding fertilizers from 12 noon. He made me sit in another room next to him. Meena and another man came and closed the door. Then they took my mobile and kept it away. They said that when you were called, you should be present within an hour. The doors and windows were closed, so I could not protest. Sticks etc were also kept in the room,” he said.
“They said that you had been working here for the past six years. You are earning a lot of money. Give ₹50 lakh as crores of rupees have been spent in the elections,” he said in the complaint letter. “If you do not give, then questions will be raised against you in the assembly.”
“They also threatened to implicate me in a false case, or kill me, if I shared this with anyone,” he added.
Reacting to the incident, Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that strict action will be taken against any wrongdoing. “I read it in the paper today. I have clearly said that in Guna, Shivpuri and Ashoknagar, whether it is the chairman, MLA, my relative, colleague, partner, whoever it is, no one will be spared,” he said. “Right is right, wrong is wrong.”
Anirudh Meena refuted the allegations. “We were receiving complaints related to fertilizer, so we just discussed it with deputy director Upadhyaya,” he said. “He is levelling false allegations.”