A video of an Assam BJP legislator rebuking a police official for “not informing him” about his joining has been making the rounds on social media for the past couple of days.

The video, which has been shared by several users and is available with The Telegraph, shows Katigorah MLA Amar Chand Jain scolding the in-charge of Gumrah police investigation centre Kamlesh Singh and saying, “Aapka superintendent of police jab aake join karta hain tab mereko bolta hain, deputy commissioner aake jis din join kiya uss din phone kiya, ‘MLA saab main aaj join kar liya hoon’. Aap SP, DC se bhi bada ho gaya kya? (When your SP comes and joins, he informs me. The day the DC joined he called me and said, ‘I have joined today, MLA sir.’ Are you above the SP and DC?).”

The investigation centre, around 42km from here, falls under Katigorah constituency in Cachar district. Singh, who was earlier in charge of Tarapur town outpost in Silchar, joined the centre around a month ago.

Singh told The Telegraph on Thursday that Jain had visited the centre around 5pm on Monday evening while a Shivratri puja was going on there.

On arriving, Jain summoned him but he was engaged in the ceremony at that time, he said.

He said after he went to Jain, he started hurling questions at him. Jain also enquired about various cases related to the area.

Kamlesh Singh A Telegraph picture

Jain, however, said he had gone to attend a meeting near the Gumrah centre on that day.

When he was passing by the centre after returning from the meeting, he saw a queue of trucks on the main road near it. He then went there and asked for the in-charge, he said.

Jain said he told Singh that it is a formal duty of any police officer to inform the local MLA after joining and even officials like the deputy commissioner and superintendent of police do the same. Jain also alleged that he had called up Singh a few days ago, but he did not receive the call.

The video has drawn flak from many users. Many have termed the act as “dadagiri” and “gundaraaj” and criticised the MLA for his “power-drunk” behaviour.

Karimganj North Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha said it is “extremely shameful” that an MLA insulted a police official like that. There is no guideline that an in-charge has to report to or inform a local MLA about his joining,” he said.

Sources in Gumrah said a section of the local media requested Singh to allow a few coal-laden trucks to pass Digarkhal and enter Gumrah and had also demanded money from him.

However, Singh did not entertain their demands after which a complaint was made to Jain that Singh was not doing his duty.

Sources also alleged that some reporters take money from coal-laden and overloaded trucks and the in-charge.