A video of the melee, during which social distancing was thrown to the wind, went viral on social media.
A case was registered against former BJP MLA Sudarshan Gupta after a programme to distribute ration on the occasion of Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar's birthday in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city led to chaos and looting, police said on Saturday.
The case was initially registered against unidentified persons under section 188 (disobeying a government official's order banning public assembly) of the IPC, but Sudarshan Gupta's name cropped up during the probe and he was also named an accused, inspector Sanjay Mishra of Malharganj police station said.
The organisers of the event held at Banganga had not taken any official permission, he said, adding that efforts to identify other accused were on.
A video of the melee, during which social distancing was thrown to the wind, went viral on social media.
A programme was organised by Sudarshan Gupta in Banganga area on Friday, wherein free ration was given to 2,000 needy families on the occasion of Tomar''s birthday.
According to eyewitnesses, people initially behaved in an orderly manner, but later started snatching ration packets.
Sudarshan Gupta, however, claimed that till the time he was there, the ration was being distributed through a token system, but after he left, some people disrupted the orderly distribution.