A Bharatiya Janata Party worker has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district for allegedly assaulting a Dalit engineer with his shoe in his office, PTI reported.

A video of the assault, which took place on Saturday, was widely circulated on social media. It showed a heated argument between Lal Singh, a superintending engineer in the electricity department, and a group of men. The officer is subsequently seen being beaten with a shoe.

Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh said that Lal Singh, in his complaint, had claimed that a man named Munna Bahadur, along with some unidentified persons, entered his office without permission. Bahadur is a member and former office-bearer of the BJP, the party’s district president Sanjay Mishra confirmed to PTI.

The police said that the accused men hurled caste-based slurs and assaulted Lal Singh with kicks, punches and a shoe. They then allegedly tore files and threatened to kill Lal Singh and his family if he filed a police report.

Bahadur, along with the group of men with him at the time, were booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act, the superintendent of police said.

Bahadur has been arrested, and an investigation is underway, the superintendent of police said.

Ahead of his arrest, Bahadur told reporters that he had gone to Lal Singh’s office to submit a memorandum about certain power-related problems in his area, PTI reported. However, the superintending engineer used abusive language against him, he claimed.

Bahadur claimed that he was the one who was attacked and had been injured.

Commenting on the attack, the Opposition Congress said that “BJP goons” in Ballia had turned the law into a “farce”.

“In [Chief Minister] Yogi Adityanath’s government, there is no rule of law; instead, BJP leaders’ whims and anarchy reign supreme,” the party said on X. “The administration has bowed down before these political goons. If this unrestrained thuggery is not reined in in time, they will plunge the entire society into the fire of anarchy.”

The Trinamool Congress also said that BJP leaders were “emboldened” to “unleash savagery on Dalits in broad daylight” with the confidence that neither the police nor the system will “dare touch them”.

“This is a party that hides behind empty slogans of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ while trampling Dalits with boots and fists,” it said on X. “What justice can Dalits expect when BJP leaders double as criminals, and the system bends to shield them?”

The party added: “Until BJP is uprooted, Dalits will remain under assault, democracy will remain hostage, and India will remain shackled to caste tyranny.”

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