Akash Vijayvargiya was arrested on Wednesday for assaulting a municipal officer with a bat.
BJP legislator Akash Vijayvargiya, who was arrested on Wednesday for assaulting a municipal official with a cricket bat in Indore, was told by a district court today that his bail application cannot be heard as it had no jurisdiction over the matter.
The judge said the case falls under the jurisdiction of a special fast track court set up in Bhopal to hear cases against public representatives, and transferred it there.
With the first-time legislator, son of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, in jail, his supporters camped outside.
Rajesh Shirodkar, President SC-ST Morcha BJP in Indore, said, "Nobody is listening to us, our representatives, even our Mayor had to protest at Lasudia Police station. Nothing wrong in what our MLA did... The officials even threatened the people and our MLA. He will defend us because he is our elected representative."
Akash Vijayvargiya was arrested after he assaulted municipal officer Dhirendrasingh Bias in public while opposing the demolition of a dilapidated house. While narrating the episode to journalists yesterday, he had said "in the BJP, we've been taught, pehle aavedan, phir nivedan aur phir danadan. (first request and then attack)".
The dilapidated building in Indore which was to be demolished by authorities
At ground zero, the blame game continues and tenants living in the dilapidated house today came out in support of their legislator claimed the municipal staff misbehaved with women and threatened them.
"Our family has been living in this rented house for 80 years. It was declared dilapidated by the municipal corporation and we were asked to vacate it within two days. We sought more time but the corporation did not heed our request. The demolition team entered the house forcibly and misbehaved with my daughter-in-law," said one of the residents Bherulal Shrivansh.
"I am disabled, they still pushed me. He (Akash Vijayvargiya) took up the bat to protect women," said Bherulal's daughter Madhuri.
Meanwhile, the municipal corporation employees protested the thrashing of their colleague and submitted a memorandum to the divisional commissioner. They also sported black badges in protest.
Officials maintain the dilapidated structure will be razed adding that action will be taken if officials are found guilty.
"In 2018, after MS hotel incident structural audit was done, in that report it was mentioned that imminent demolition is necessary for public safety. We demolished few last year, 26 were kept for this year. If the family is alleging any misbehavior by our officials, we will definitely do inquiry and if found guilty we won't spare them," said Indore Municipal Corporation Commissioner Asheesh Singh.
Meanwhile, 21 municipal officers have been suspended for standing in support of Akash Vijayvargiya, who was beating up their colleague during the demolition drive.
The house was in a dilapidated condition and a notice had been issued earlier to its occupants to vacate, but they were not ready to budge, officials said.