Bhubaneswar municipal official dragged out of office and assaulted, told to apologise to BJP leader

A group of men on Monday assaulted a municipal official in Bhubaneswar and dragged him out of his office during a weekly grievance hearing session, The Indian Express reported.

The official, Additional Commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, alleged in his police complaint that six to seven unknown men entered his chamber and aggressively asked him if he had spoken to a Bharatiya Janata Party leader named Jagannath Pradhan.

Sahoo told the men he had spoken to Pradhan on the phone earlier in the day. He alleged that the group then tried to drag him by his shirt collar into a vehicle, demanding that he go to the BJP leader and apologise, The New Indian Express reported. It was not clear what the attackers wanted the official to apologise for.

“They beat me brutally in full public view with an attempt to murder, in the presence of public representatives, i.e. corporators of the BMC, BMC officers, staff, and citizens,” Sahoo said in his complaint,...

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