A woman has levelled charges against Congress MLA from Barhi Akela Yadav and his son Ravi Shankar Akela for allegedly digging a trench in front of her home and blocking its entrance.

The woman in her complaint to deputy commissioner Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh on Sunday evening said her husband Ashok Yadav, who is a para teacher, owns the plot which is his ancestral property. She said their home had been constructed on the plot several years ago and they were using the PWD road connected with their home through a patch of land.

She said that on Saturday night, Ravi and a few men used a JCB earthmover to dig a trench in front of their home. “We objected and this led to a heated exchange of words with Ravi. Then men began threatening us,” she added.

“Soon, they started chasing us,” she said.

The woman went to the Chouparan police station and made a complaint against Ravi and a few others. She said the MLA was behind the digging of the trench as they were eyeing that plot. She said that the trench had made it difficult for them to travel in and out of their home and taking the approach road.

Ravi, however, rejected the woman’s claim. He said it was an attempt to malign the image of his father. “I have nothing to do with the piece of land. I even have no idea as who was behind the digging of the trench and attacking the family,” Ravi said.

Police officers confirmed that they had been informed about the issue and were investigating who had dug the trench.

Congress leaders at the protest in Dhanbad on Sunday (Praduman Choubey)

Protest against Pradhan rally

The president of the Congress’s city unit, Baibhav Sinha, on Sunday joined other party leaders at 5pm at Dhaiya in Dhanbad to clang utensils for five minutes to protest Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s Jharkhand virtual rally.

Talking to reporters, district Congress president Brajendra Prasad Singh, who was also present during the protest, said the BJP, including the minister, was “shamelessly organising a virtual rally in the state only to hide its failures” instead of showing solidarity with martyred soldier Kundan Kant Ojha of Sahebganj.

Baibhav Sinha said: “The BJP’s ‘virtual rally’ is another failed conspiracy to divert the attention from the ‘actual reality’ of the sufferings of the people of India.”

“The present BJP government has no vision and has completely failed on fronts including economic, health, defence and foreign relations, and in handling the coronavirus pandemic, which is the biggest challenge facing the nation,” added Sinha.

“At a time when the country is facing an unprecedented crisis, the ruling dispensation is resorting to political gimmicks both on the internal and external fronts,” said Sinha.

Drowning death

The dead body of a 50-year-old farmer, Thakur Prasad Singh, of Morchatand village in Jamdiha panchayat of Govidpur block, about 18km from the Dhanbad district headquarters, who died due to drowning while fishing in a pond on Friday, was recovered after a 21-hour-long search operation on Sunday around 9am.

A team of Govindpur police led by officer in charge Surendra Prasad recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital.