Lucknow:
Fresh embarrassment for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav desperately trying to rein in the rogue elements within his faction.
In the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party MLA from the Badaun city constituency, Abid Raza Khan, has been accused of allegedly getting his aide to thrash a local property dealer in his office in the Civil Lines area.
Mahesh Prakash claims that on Wednesday night he was summoned to the MLA's residence in Badaun after he refused to sell about a bigha (756 sq. yards) of land to a an aide of the MLA, Rajendra Mathuria.
Angered by his reluctance to part with his property, Rajendra Mathuria allegedly thrashed Mr Prakash in his office while Abid Raza Khan remained a mute spectator to this assault.
"I was beaten up by Rajendra Mathuria in the MLA's presence because I refused to sell land to him," said Mr Prakash.
But the SP MLA says that he has been wrongly framed by the property dealer. "The dispute is between Mahesh and Rajendra. I stepped in to broker peace between them."
On Thursday, Mahesh Prakash lodged a complaint with the local police station against Rajendra Mathuria of assaulting him in the SP MLA's presence.
While the police is yet to lodge an FIR naming the MLA and his aide, they say they are conducting a preliminary enquiry based on the complaint filed by the property dealer.
"We are conducting a preliminary enquiry to investigate whether the charges leveled are true or not. We have sent Mahesh Prakash for his medical examination," added the Superintendent of Police, Badaun, Ram Ratan Shrivastav.