Congress party’s Indore candidate, Akshay Bam, slapped with an attempt to murder charge in a 17-year-old land grabbing case against him on directions from a local court here, just 5 days before he withdrew his nomination.
Bam filed his nomination from the Congress on April 23, and was charged under section of attempt to murder in a land dispute case on April 24. On April 29, Madhya Pradesh Cabinet minister and BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya announced that Bam had joined the party, after withdrawing his nomination.
The alleged victim, Yunus Patel, decided to approach a first-class magistrate on April 5 this year with an application requesting for adding section 307 (attempt to murder) which was accepted by Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) on April 24, according to news agency PTI.
The case was registered on October 4, 2007 against Bam and others for assaulting Patel over a land dispute under sections 294 (use of obscene words, abusive language), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR didn’t mention “attempt to murder charge”.
However, in his application filed on April 5 in the court here, Patel alleged one Satveer Singh, who operated a security agency, fired at him from a .12 bore gun on the behest of Kantilal.
Nidhi Nilesh Srivastava, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) at Indore district court, who passed the order, directed Bam to be present with his father on May 10, the next date of hearing.
Incidentally, Satveer Singh has died, while two other accused, Sohan alias Sonu and Manoj, are absconding.
According to the police, the .12 bore gun and a blank cartridge were indeed recovered from the spot in 2007.
Meanwhile, the Congress has accused the BJP of intimidating its candidates alleging there was a threat to democracy.
“Before they were buying MLAs, now they are threatening them into withdrawing their nomination,” Jitu Patwari, Congress state president, told Scroll. He alleged that a charge was added to the old case to pressure Bam.
Monday was the last day of withdrawing of nominations for the fourth phase of the polls. Indore will vote on May 13, while results will be declared on June 4.
