BHOPAL: 'MP ajab hai, sabse gajab hai,' the famous catchline of the Madhya Pradesh government's efforts to harness the state's enormous tourist potential could also be the apt punchline for two bizarre complaints that have come to the limelight in the Ujjain district of the central Indian state.
While a vehicle parking lot operator has written to the state's home minister, seeking action against a liquor vend for not getting the 'kick' after consuming Desi liquor, another man in the same Ujjain district has submitted a complaint to the police over the theft of his slippers worth Rs 180.
A private car parking operator Lokendra Sothiya, who has been consuming liquor for the last 15-20 years, will move the consumer forum in Ujjain on Monday, over failing to get intoxicated by two 'quarter' bottles of Desi liquor, which he bought from licensed liquor vend in Kshirsagar Ghati area of Ujjain on April 12.
Sothiya will carry to the consumer forum as evidence, the two sealed 'quarter' bottles of the liquor, which he didn't open, after failing to get intoxicated after consuming two other bottles of the same liquor on April 12.
Sothiya had bought four sealed 'quarter' bottles of Desi liquor from the liquor outlet to consume with friend Nirmal Chourasiya. But on consuming two bottles of the liquor, when he didn't get the kick (intoxication), he went to the concerned liquor shop alleging that the bottles contained water and not liquor.
"The liquor vend staff asked me to go away and dared me to do whatever I can against the vend, after which I complained the matter to the local excise department office and also sent its copy to the state's home minister Narottam Mishra. I came to know that a team of excise department had visited the concerned liquor outlet and conducted an investigation on Saturday. But with no punitive action having been taken till now against the liquor outlet for selling water in name of the liquor, I'll move the consumer forum in the matter on Monday," Bahadurganj (Ujjain) resident Sothiya told The New Indian Express on Sunday.
The other bizarre complaint also pertains to Ujjain.
The Khachrod police in the Ujjain district received a complaint on May 5, about the theft of a farmer's slippers.
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The farmer, Jitendra Bagri, a native of Tarod village alleged in the complaint, that his black slippers worth Rs 180 were stolen by someone from his house on May 4. He feared that the stolen slippers (which he bought a month back) could be used by the thief to frame him in a theft case after leaving them at some other place of theft in the future.
The Khachrod police station in-charge Ravindra Yadav, acting on the matter, asked Ashok Katara, the sub-inspector in charge of the Chapakheda police outpost to take appropriate action on the complaint.
While tippler Lokendra Sothiya still awaits action against the liquor outlet whose liquor failed to give him the high he was looking for, the small landholding farmer Jitendra Bagri, much to his surprise got his slipper back on Saturday.
"I had just informed the police on May 5 about the possibility of my stolen slippers being used to commit some other theft and the thieves leaving them at the other place of theft to get me falsely implicated in the theft case. But much to my surprise, the cops from Chapakheda police chowki found the stolen slippers in a drain and handed over the slippers to me on Saturday," Jitendra told TNIE on Sunday.