A Dalit engineer working in the electricity department in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia was attacked by a BJP worker inside his office, a viral video showed. The politician, identified as Munna Bahadur Singh, also allegedly used caste slurs during the assault, said Superintending Engineer Lal Singh on Saturday.
The engineer, who was injured in the attack, said that around 20–25 men barged into his office without any explanation. Among them was Munna Bahadur Singh, a former BJP mandal president.
“Munna Bahadur Singh barged inside with 20–25 men and started thrashing me. He didn’t ask me anything, neither did he share his grievance. He hit my head with a shoe, punched me, and abused me using caste slurs. Other staff then intervened and saved me,” the engineer told reporters.
In the viral video, Munna Singh is seen angrily shouting at officials before charging at the engineer. He was briefly stopped but soon returned with a shoe and struck the engineer several times. The engineer later went for a medical check-up and filed a police complaint. He added that CCTV cameras in the office were not working and that the attack was filmed by a staff member.
Meanwhile, Munna Singh denied the allegations and accused the engineer and his staff of attacking him instead. Speaking to reporters at the district hospital, he said, “I am a BJP worker. About 10–12 of us had gone there with an application. He asked us to wait when we tried to share our grievance. When we insisted on being heard and said we would do dharna, he abused us. He and his colleagues then held us by our collars and thrashed us. They attacked us with sharp weapons.” Singh, who had visible bandages on his body, claimed he was assaulted first.
The engineer rejected these claims, saying he had no knowledge of such an incident.
Ballia’s Additional Superintendent of Police, Kripa Shankar, said a case has been registered against Munna Bahadur Singh under relevant sections of the law and teams have been formed to arrest him.
