Maha: NCP MLA booked for assaulting civic official in Parbhani

Vijay Bhambale, Nationalist Congress Party MLA from Jintur in Maharashtra's Parbhani district, was booked after a civic official lodged a complaint of assault and abuse, a police official said Saturday.

According to the official, tax department staffer DV Talekar of the Jintur municipality has claimed Bhambale called him home on Friday to speak on a matter related to water and property taxes of a local school.

"Talekar has said the MLA was pressuring him on waiving off the water and property taxes of the school, and then abused and assaulted him. We have booked the MLA after Talekar filed a complaint late Friday night," the official said.

Bhambale has been booked under sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC, the official said.

The incident comes amid two others, in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, of elected representatives assaulting government officials, causing widespread public outrage..

On June 26, Akash Vijayvargiya, BJP MLA from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, hit a civic official with a bat to stall a demolition drive.

On July 4, Congress MLA from Kankavli, Nitesh Rane, was held for attacking a deputy engineer of the National Highway Authority of India with mud.

Rane was protesting the dismal state of the Mumbai-Goa highway that runs though his constituency in the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra.