Madhya Pradesh Man Hospitalised After BJP Lawmaker's Son Opens Fire

A 34-year-old man was injured after the son of a BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh allegedly fired at him following an altercation in Singrauli district of the state, police said on Friday.

The incident took place around 6 pm on Thursday, they said.

Following the incident, the police registered a case against 40-year-old Vivekanand Vaishya, Morba police station inspector Ashok Singh Parihar said.

The accused is a son of BJP legislator Ram Lallu Vaishya who represents the Singrauli assembly constituency, police said.

Vivekanand Vaishya has been booked under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 25 (possessing or carrying any prohibited arms) and 27 (use of arms, ammunition) of the Arms Act, Parihar said.

Vaishya is currently out on bail in another case, in which he had roughed up a forest guard and opened fire in July last year, another police official said.

Giving information about Thursday's incident, police said that the accused was going in his car, when he entered into an altercation with a group of persons over a narrow road near Budhi Mai Mata temple, about 25 km from the district headquarters.

Soon, victim Surya Kumar Khairwar joined the group and started arguing with Vaishya. In a fit of rage, the politician's son fired at Khairwar, in which he was injured, they said.

"Khairwar sustained a bullet injury on his right wrist and was admitted to the trauma ward of the district hospital. He is stable," inspector Parihar said.

According to local residents, Khairwar belonged to a tribal community.

When asked why the accused was not booked under the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the victim reportedly belonged to a tribal community, Parihar said if he submits his caste certificate to reveal that he is a tribal, then relevant charges could be invoked against Vaishya.

Another police official told PTI on the condition of anonymity that the MLA's son had bashed up forest guard Sanjeev Shukla and opened fire to intimidate him on July 20 last year under the jurisdiction of the same police station.

A case was registered against him following that incident. After remaining untraceable for some time, Vaishya had surrendered in a local court in February this year, he said.

But after that, he remained in government hospitals at Waidhan in Singrauli, Rewa, Jabalpur on medical grounds during his judicial custody for around 45 days before he got bail from the high court, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)