The members of Treasury bench and Opposition together cornered Home Minister Ramsewak Paikra in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Wednesday over the issue of alleged attack by a liquor contractor’s henchmen on the sole Independent member Dr Vimal Chopra in his constituency Mahasamund on February 16 (Sunday).
The issue was raised by the Independent member through a call attention notice on Wednesday. The Independent member had to face brief suspension as he stormed into the well of the House, alone while demanding clamping of harder charges against the accused such as ‘Attempt to Murder’ in the case. The Opposition members also staged walkout demanding action over the issue.
The call attention notice was also supported by, Rajendra Rai of Congress and Santosh Bafna of BJP in the House. Independent member Chopra in his statement while narrating the sequence of the incident on February 16 stated that some persons of Mahasamund’s liquor shop number 1 had tried to knock him down using a vehicle and also injured his supporter Pawan Sahu by thrashing him with a steel rod.
Based on the information about supplying of illegal liquor in his constituency, the Independent member Chopra had chased a Mahindra Bolero vehicle along with his two supporters in their car and had reached Hadband area of Bagbahara. When they tried to intercept the Bolero, the MlA said that the driver of the accused attempted to run the SUV over them.
In his reply, Home Minister Ramsewak Paikra said that a case under sections 147, 148, 149, 294, 506 (B) and 323 of IPC punishment for rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapon, every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence, obscene acts, punishment for criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt- was registered respectively in this connection.
The Home Minister further stated that during the course of investigation, two of the accused were arrested in the case. However, they were later released on a bail bond, he informed house. Efforts are on to trace six other accused in this connection, the Home Minister maintained. No one satisfied with the reply, the Congress member Satyanarayan Sharma, BJP MlA Devjibhai Patel and Shivratan Sharma along with other members expressed their concern on the issue while pointing out that an attack on a public representative is a very serious matter and Section 307 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) (Attempt to Murder) should also be pressed against the accused.
Rejecting the demand, Paikra said that the case is under investigation and other sections will be added based on the findings of the probe. Unsatisfied with the reply Congressmen staged a walkout accusing the government for favouring the liquor contractors in the state. Taking note of the issue, Assembly Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal asked the Home Minister for a specific answer on which Paikara assured a probe into the matter by a high ranking police officer reiterating that Attempt to Murder charge would be imposed based on the probe findings.
Disappointed with answer of the Minister, Independent Member Chopra reached to the well of house and also squatted on the floor. He was suspended as per the rule of State Assembly according to which any member entering the well of the House gets automatically suspended. His suspension was revoked later by the Speaker.