Union Minister Bishweshwar Tudu has been accused by a government official of attacking and beating him during the review meeting and breaking his hand. The officer’s hand has been bandaged and he has been admitted to the hospital.
This incident is from Baripada in Odisha, the home town of Union Minister Bishweshwar Tudu. Bishweshwar Tudu is the Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and Jalshakti at the Centre.
Bishweshwar Tudu is a BJP MP from Mayurbhanj and was made a minister of state by PM Modi during the cabinet reorganization in July last year.
The Union Minister had called a meeting in his office. Deputy Director of District Planning and Monitoring Unit Ashwini Kumar Malik and Assistant Director Debashish Mohapatra were called in this meeting. This incident happened on Friday.
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Victims say that during the review meeting, the minister became very furious about something and attacked both the officers with a chair by closing the door from inside. Debashish Mohapatra’s hand has been broken in this attack. While Ashwini Kumar Malik has received injuries. Both the officers have been admitted to PRM Medical College, Baripada.
A senior police officer told media that a case has been registered against the Union Minister under sections 323, 325, 294 and 506 of the IPC at Baripada Town police station on the basis of a complaint lodged by two government officials.
One of the injured officers, Debashish Mohapatra, said, “The minister first scolded us saying that we had violated protocol. We tried to convince him that if we went to his office with the files at the time of model code of conduct, it would be would have been unfair. The model code of conduct is in force in the state due to the upcoming panchayat elections. But, he got angry and started hitting us.”
Meanwhile, Union Minister Bishweshwar Tudu has categorically denied the allegations and said that it is an attempt to malign his image ahead of the panchayat elections. He said that the allegations are false and baseless. “They came to me, we sat for almost half an hour, it was lunch time, the review meeting could not be completed, so I asked them to come again tomorrow, they never came back,” the Union minister said.
Union Minister said that I asked them to come with files that how Rs 7 crore given by the central government was spent, now they are making baseless allegations, if I had beaten them, would they (from my office) could return.
On the other hand, Ashwini Malik said that when both of us met in the party office of the minister, he lost his cool because we had forgotten to bring the MPLADS file. He said, “The minister started raging on both of us and started abusing us and then started thrashing us with plastic chair, somehow we both managed to escape from the spot.” Now the police is investigating the matter.
