Ashish Mandal alias Tinku, son of ruling Janata Dal (United) MLA Narendra Kumar Neeraj alias Gopal Mandal, was arrested in connection with a shooting case, police said on Tuesday.
Gopal Mandal represents the Gopalpur constituency in Bhagalpur in Bihar. Ashish was arrested from the office of Bhagalpur mayor’s candidate Savita Devi, said to be his mother.
According to police, Ashish, along with his associates allegedly attacked four people, including three members of a family and the managing director of a Khagaria-based public school.
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Bhagalpur superintendent of police (SSP) Babu Ram said that the MLA’s son and his three associates allegedly fired indiscriminately over a land dispute and injured four persons on December 12.
The incident occurred under Barari police station limit over the illegal occupation of a plot of 19 Katha land. The SSP said nearly two dozen people led by Ashish allegedly tried to occupy the land owned by one Lal Bahadur Singh alias Laddu Shastri. When the owner and his people resisted, the musclemen beat them up with sticks and opened fire, said SSP.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against five named people including the MLA, his son and 20 unknown on the basis of the statement of Lal Bahadur, SSP said.
In the FIR, Lal Bahadur alleged that the MLA threatened him over the phone to vacate the land and threatened him with dire consequences.
Following the incident, on December 16, the chief judicial magistrate of Bhagalpur issued an arrest warrant against the four named accused including Ashish, Dilip Mandal, Dhanraj Yadav and Sanjiv.
“The prime accused in the case, Ashish, was arrested and raids are being conducted to nab the other accused persons,” said SSP.
