Bolangir: In a major development, Bolangir police has detained Patnagarh BJD MLA Saroj Meher in connection with an FIR lodged against him for forcing a Government Junior Engineer (JE) to do sit ups in public on June 5 after blaming him for the low quality of an under-construction road at Gambhari village in Belpada block.
The development came just a day before the first session of the 16th State Assembly on June 25 and also in the wake of the Zilla Adivasi Sangha threatening to gherao the Assembly the following day on June 26.
Patnagarh police had on June 7 registered a case against Meher, the first time legislator from Patnagarh in Bolangir district, on charge of forcing Public Works Department (PWD) JE Jayakant Sabar to do sit-ups in public, the video of which had gone viral on social media.
The case has been registered under different sections of the IPC and SC, ST Atrocity Act.
While the engineer’s wife had lodged the police complaint, the ruling party MLA’s wife had moved the Orissa High Court seeking advance bail for her husband.
Meanwhile, the HC on Thursday deferred to next month the hearing into bail plea of newly elected BJD and called for the case diary (CD) and sought a detailed status report of the police investigations into the case made so far.
The matter will now come for hearing in the High Court again on July 9.
