RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh school education minister Kedar Kashyap is in news after allegedly threatening to beat up a general manager of Kondagaon district industries, following allegations that the officer accepted a bribe of Rs 5000.
The general manager, S R Elma, said the minister called him to a guest house, and without listening to his clarification over the allegation, warned him that he will get beaten up with the minister's shoes and his office would be set ablaze.
“I was badly insulted in the presence of his party cadres and other officials. The minister asked me why I took Rs 5000 as he started rebuking me with offensive language. He even took out his shoes and threatened to beat me. I told him that the money taken was actually meant for the chartered accountant who prepared the project report to set up some project in Kondagaon. I didn't accept any money”, Elma said.
However, Kashyap refuted the officer's charges as "baseless". But he admitted that he had called Elma after receiving a complaint from villagers. He claimed that the officer, having accepted his "misdeed", agreed to return the amount he took.
“My intention was not to hurt anyone but to convey a strong message against corruption. Why would I threaten to beat him with my shoes when I was not even wearing a shoe,” Kashyap defended.
Elma said that he has lodged a formal complaint with the district collector Samir Bishnoi. The collector, however, told the New Indian Express that he is yet to receive any written complaint from Elma. "The officer has only verbally communicated to me", Bishnoi said.