A woman deputy collector in Madhya Pradesh was arrested on the charge of disrupting peace after her foot march seeking "justice" from the government and urging it to accept her resignation as she wanted to fight the upcoming assembly polls, reached the state capital, police said.
The foot march, led by the official, Nisha Bangre, started from Betul district on September 28 and reached Bhopal on Monday evening. She was arrested after the march participants started proceeding towards the residence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a police official said on Tuesday.
Ms Bangre, the deputy collector of Chhatarpur district, tendered her resignation in June this year. But it has not been accepted by the state government so far, her family member said.
Elections to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly will be held on November 17 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3.
"The woman official's march reached Bhopal on Monday evening. After she garlanded the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar and started marching towards CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's residence, the police stopped the march and arrested her for violating section 151 of the Indian Penal Code (assembly of five or more to disturb peace)," he said.
Meanwhile, a Congress leader said that when Ms Bangre resisted the police's attempt to arrest her, her dress got torn. Additional Police Commissioner Mahavir Singh Mujalde, however, denied the claim, and said the entire episode was captured on media cameras.
He said that following her arrest, Ms Bangre was produced in a local court. As she refused to be bailed out, she was sent to jail.
Meanwhile, Bhopal Central Jail official Saroj Mishra said that Ms Bangre was lodged in the women's ward inside the prison.
When asked whether she was staging a hunger strike inside the prison, the official clarified that she has not given any intimation in writing on the issue.
Ms Bangre, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category resigned from the service after she was not granted leave to take part in a religious programme in her hometown in Betul district, her husband Suresh Agrawal told PTI.
"She wants to contest the assembly polls from Amla in Betul district, but her resignation has not been accepted since June 22," he said.
When nothing happened, she embarked on a peaceful march on September 28, which reached Bhopal on Monday, he said.
"We were marching peacefully towards the chief minister's residence, but the police arrested her midway and at present she is in jail," he said.
He also informed that she would be released soon as they are completing necessary formalities to get her out of the prison.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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