NEW DELHI, Nov 12: A Congress MLA was among the people against whom the Madhya Pradesh police have filed a complaint in Ratlam for alleged looting of urea fertilisers from a distribution centre. The MLA, however, has refuted the allegations and claimed that he would continue to fight for the farmers.
The MLA Manoj Chawla of Alote constituency and Congress leader Yogendra Singh Jadon and others have been accused over the incident that took place on Thursday evening, Superintendent of Police Abhishekh Tiwari said. Based on a complaint lodged by the centre’s in-charge, a case has been registered for robbery and assaulting public servants, among other charges. The police are also trying to identify others involved in the loot through a video of the incident, he said.
District Collector Narendra Suryavanshi said there was no shortage of urea in the district and the fertiliser was being distributed offline as well. According to eyewitnesses, Mr Chawla showed up at the centre after some farmers, waiting for hours at the centre, complained that they were not getting urea from the centre and staged a protest.
Officials were heard saying that they were unable to deliver urea due to an online glitch, which would be fixed in a day, they said. The angry Congress MLA asked farmers present there to take away bags of the fertiliser and “facilitated” the loot by opening the shutter of the warehouse, they said.
The video of the incident showing the Congress MLA in action has surfaced on social media. Calling the police case “fake”, Mr Chawla released a video stating that he will not be intimidated by it and will keep fighting for farmers. “The collector and SP (Superintendent of Police) got a fake FIR (First Information Report) registered against me,” he said in a clip released to the public.
Later, other Congress leaders including former minister Jitu.Patwari, former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria and Congress MLA Kunal Chaudhary came in support of Chawla and held a protest dharna at the collectorate and also had a heated argument with Ratlam collector.
(Manas Dasgupta)
