Kodinar Cong MLA booked for beating up sugar mill employee

Kodinar Congress MLA Dhirsinh Barad and 14 others were booked for rioting and assault on Wednesday after they allegedly beat up a security officer at the Bileshwar Sugar Factory in Kodinar the previous night. “A complaint under various sections of the IPC was registered on Wednesday night,’’ said the Kodinar police. The complainant Jagdish Parmar,an assistant security officer at the Bileshwar Sugar Factory,alleged that he was assaulted by the MLA and 14 others for disconnecting the water and electricity connection of a former factory worker Nanusinh Mori’s quarters.

Mori,a resident of Dolasa village near Kodinar and Barad’s supporter, was reportedly sacked and asked to vacate his quarters. Mori however refused to do so because he claimed he needed to settle his provident fund. The factory,run by the Bileshwar Sugar Industry Co-operative Society,had reportedly instructed Parmar to disconnect the water and electricity connection to Mori’s quarters.

The sugar factory’s chairman Natubhai Vala is the father-in-law of BJP Junagadh MP Dinu Solanki who is considered to be Barad’s political rival. Barad had become Kodinar’s first Congress MLA after defeating Natubhai Vala in 2009. Dinu Solanki had won the past three by-elections in Kodinar before he became Junagadh MP in 2009. Both Barad and Solanki have over the years filed numerous police complaints against each other. In April this year,Barad had sought security from the Governor alleging that Solanki was planning to kill him in a fake encounter with the help of top police officials in Junagadh district. \Since most of the trustees of the factory are supporters of Solanki, the case filed against Barad has been reportedly seen as a retaliation by Solanki.