Issuing a controversial warning, a Union minister in Chhattigarh told officials that she knows "how to take people to a room and beat them with belts". The minister's threat came after a man was allegedly beaten up at Balrampur coronavirus quarantine centre.
"Dadagiri nahin chalegi," warned Singh, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the minister was enraged after Dilip Gupta, a resident of Balarampur district had accused the chief executive officer and tehsildar of the district panchayat of assaulting him at the quarantine centre over complaints of poor arrangements.
"Bhagvadhari BJP karyakartaon ko kamzor na samjhna aap...Jo bhed-bhaav kar rahe ho na BJP karyakartaaon ke saath...Bhool Jaaiye...Andheri Kothari mein le jaake mein ..belt kolke thokna jaanti hun bhut acche se... (Don’t think that BJP workers are weak .. Forget about the discrimination which you are doing with them.. I very well know how to lock people in a room and thrash them with a belt)," the minister was quoted as saying. The incident was recorded on camera.
"You thrashed him just because he knows his rights? You people are working arbitrarily and this will not work," she said.
"If I was only a MP, I would have lived entire time in my constituency but I am a union minister too, so I have to go to Delhi. This does not mean that my workers and people have become vulnerable,” she said.
The report stated that the minister did not respond to repeated call and messages from Hindustan Times. She later told news agency ANI: "When Gupta saw the poor arrangement at the quarantine centre, he made a video to raise the issue. However, the information about videography soon reached the administration, and two officials — a tehsildar and CEO Janpad Panchayat reached in the centre. They threatened and beat him with belt. After this they shifted him to some other place and the family started searching for Gupta. The parents informed me and when I reached the centre, I found that Gupta was badly thrashed. The CEO Janpad Panchayat accepted that he made a mistake."
Balrampur Collector Sanjiv Kumar Jha said an inquiry has been ordered.
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