A man accused of urinating on a tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district was arrested on Wednesday and amid outrage over the incident and targeting of BJP from across the political spectrum, local authorities razed an illegal part of the house belonging to his father.
The opposition Congress demanded a CBI probe into the urination incident.
The accused, Pravesh Shukla, who the Congress claimed is an aide of a BJP MLA, was arrested after the video of the incident surfaced on social media a day earlier.
Also read | Demolish properties of man accused of urinating on tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh: Mayawati
According to a district official, Pravesh Shukla was found to have a criminal background.
The accused was arrested at around 2 am on Wednesday on the basis of leads. He is being questioned, Additional Superintendent of Police Anjulata Patle said.
"His father Ramakant Shukla's house was not constructed as per permissions and therefore the illegal portion of it is being demolished,” a district official said.
Opposition Congress and Mayawati-led BSP had demanded that the BJP government in MP use a bulldozer to demolish Shukla's properties.
Kamleshwar Patel, Congress MLA from Sihawal constituency in Sidhi district, went to Kubri village of the victim on Wednesday and launched an indefinite protest for "justice".
Speaking to reporters in Bhopal, former Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kantilal Bhuria claimed the peeing video was a few months old.
He alleged the "accused BJP leader, Pravesh Shukla, made the victim submit an affidavit stating that no case should be registered against him".
"The incident that occurred in Sidhi is an insult to the tribal community. The state government should hand over the investigation to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the case should be heard in the court of law in non-BJP states," Bhuria said.
He demanded that the victim's family be given compensation of Rs 2 crore and the government job to two members of his family.
Bhuria also claimed that the accused has links with top BJP leaders and his photos with senior leaders of the ruling party are surfaced.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had denied the allegation of the Congress that the accused was linked to the saffron party.
An official from the Chief Minister's Office had said a case was registered against the accused at Bahari police station under Indian Penal Code sections 294 (obscene acts), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Action against the stringent National Security Act was also initiated, he had said.
In Indore city, Dalits and tribals staged a protest to condemn the peeing incident.
The protesters, under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Balai Mahasangh, raised slogans and waved placards alleging increasing atrocities on members of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in the state.
Talking to reporters during the protest, Mahasangh president Manoj Parmar said, "Pravesh Shukla has brought shame to the entire country by urinating on a tribal youth in Sidhi district. Shukla should be punished severely. If possible, he should be hanged."
The incident invited condemnation from Congress, CPI, BSP, and tribal bodies, apart from the ruling BJP.
MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra termed the man's action as “heinous, condemnable and a shame on humanity”.
From the Opposition camp, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, BSP supremo Mayawati and CPI condemned the incident and targeted BJP.
Rahul Gandhi said atrocities on tribals and Dalits are increasing under the BJP rule.
The former Congress chief said the real face of BJP's hatred towards tribals and Dalits was exposed with the "inhuman act."
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also slammed the BJP over the incident and said that "the inhuman and disgusting act done by a person close to a BJP MLA to a tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh is extremely shameful."
During the 18 years of BJP rule in the state, 30,400 cases of atrocities on tribals have come to the fore, she claimed.
Mayawati also said the act was shameful and condemnable and demanded the demolition of the property of the accused.
In a series of tweets in Hindi, the BSP chief said, "The incident of a local leader urinating on an Adivasi/Dalit youth in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh is shameful, inhuman and condemnable. The government waking up only after the video went viral proves their involvement, that too is very sad".
The CPI has said there are only insults for the marginalised sections in the "RSS brand of new india".
"CPI strongly condemns the disturbing and appalling incident of urinating on a tribal youth in Madhya Pradesh. The alleged BJP member's despicable act is reflective of RSS-BJP's culture. Marginalised sections only have insults, indignation and cruelty in RSS brand of 'New India'," Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja said in a tweet on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, when asked whether the accused is an MLA's representative, MP BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma said such persons are not of any party.
When specifically asked whether he was removed from the party, Sharma said, “Bilkul (absolutely).
Some social media posts claimed that the accused Pravesh Shukla was a representative of BJP MLA from Sidhi, Kedarnath Shukla.
But when contacted, the MLA had denied the allegation.
"I do not know if the victim is a tribal or not, but strict action should be taken against the accused. The accused is not my representative," Kedarnath Shukla told PTI on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh has constituted a four-member committee to conduct a probe into the incident, state party chief V D Sharma said.