Lakhimpur Kheri Echo In Odisha: Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev To Be Arrested; Know The Charges Against Him [Watch]

Bhubaneswar: Suspended BJD MLA from Chilika, Prashant Jagdev, has been charged with attempt to murder for ploughing his vehicle into a crowd and causing grievous injuries to people. He will be arrested after being discharged from the hospital, IG (central) Narasingha Bhol informed on Saturday.

The legislator has also been booked for 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 intended to enter the block office,” he said.

Besides civilians, ten police personnel were injured in the incident, he added.

“A DSP-rank officer will probe Jagdev’s highly deplorable act of deliberately ramming the vehicle into the crowd,” the DIG said.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been clamped in Banapur town to prevent any untoward incidents in wake of unrest after the accident, he added.

The MLA’s vehicle had rammed a crowd, which was waiting outside the Banapur block development office this afternoon when an indirect election for the post of block chairman was underway.

A total of 22 persons, including 10 police personnel, were injured in the incident and seven among them had to be shifted to Bhubaneswar for better treatment.

The irate mob had then assaulted the legislator and damaged his car. Jagdev, who sustained critical injuries, was initially treated at Tangi hospital and then shifted to Bhubaneswar.

The BJD has demanded stern action against the MLA while BJD had condemned the incident saying that there was no place for violence in a democracy.

The MLA has a history for unruly public behaviour. In September last year, Jagdev was suspended from the BJD after a video of his thrashing a BJP leader of his Chilika constituency went viral. 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.