Bhubaneswar: Chilika MLA Prashant Jagadev, who had ploughed his SUV into a crowd in Odisha’s Khurda district on March 12, was arrested after being discharged from hospital, Central Range IG, Narasingha Bhol informed on Tuesday.
“He will be produced before the District and Sessions Judge Court in Bhubaneswar today. After getting the transit remand, he will be produced in the Banapur JMFC court,” he added.
While 22 people, including 10 police personnel, were injured in the incident, which took place during the block chairman election at Banapur, angry villagers caught and assaulted the legislator after this barbaric and also smashed his SUV.
A seriously injured Jagadev along with seven others were then shifted to Bhubaneswar for better treatment.
The incident was a grim reminder of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which four protesting farmers and a journalist were run over by a car.
The Chilika MLA has been booked under Section 307 of the Indian penal code (attempt to murder). He is also accused of obstructing officers from discharging their duty. “He was instructed against driving into the crowd, which had gathered for the chairperson election near the Banapur block office, by the IIC, Rashmi Ranjan Sahoo, and other senior officers. He paid no heed to the requests and ran his vehicle over them while intending to enter the block office,” Bhol had earlier told media.
Notably, the MLA has a history of unruly public behaviour. In September last year, Jagadev was suspended from the BJD after a video of his thrashing a BJP leader of his Chilika constituency went viral. He was reportedly expelled from the party three months before the Banapur incident.
In August 2020, a junior engineer had registered a complaint alleging that he had misbehaved with him. In 2016, too, he had landed himself in controversy for allegedly assaulting a lady tehsildar.
