KOLKATA: Bihar urban development and housing minister and Muzaffarpur MLA Suresh Kumar Sharma and his bodyguards allegedly beat up staffers at a hotel in temple town Tarapith in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Monday evening demanding a refund of a room in the hotel booked online.
On the other hand, Sharma alleged that he and his men were manhandled by the hotel staff when they demanded a refund, a charge denied by the hotel authorities.
The minister’s personal secretary S Kumar claimed that the hotel staff had manhandled the minister when asked for the refund. “We had booked two rooms in the hotel online but after reaching there, we found that the rooms were unsuitable for the minister and asked the hotel authorities to make alternate arrangements. However, when the authorities refused to do that, we decided to move out of the hotel and demanded a refund to which the hotel staff attacked us,” he said.
However, hotel manager Sunil Giri said that they told the minister and his associates that the booking amount could be refunded only online as the booking was done online. “But they refused to listen to us and attacked hotel staff at the reception,” he said.
While the hotel authorities lodged a complaint at Tarapith police station against Suresh Kumar Sharma stating that they have evidence as CCTV footage showing the Bihar minister and his men attacking the hotel receptionists, the minister has also lodged a complaint at the police station against the hotel authorities accusing them of assault and fraud. The minister and his associates have checked in to another hotel in the temple town.