Patna,(BiharTimes): Two FIRs have been lodged following burn injuries sustained by the RJD MLA, Surendra Yadav, late on Sunday night near a ‘tilkut’ shop at Tekara Road in Gaya in a brawl involving him, his bodyguard and driver and the shopkeepers.

The RJD organized Gaya bandh (shutdown) on Monday in protest against the incident.What actually started as a verbal duel between the driver of the MLA and shopowner and customers over jumping of queue turned into a full blown quarrel.

The MLA had to be rushed to the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital as hot sugar-mix was thrown on him by someone during the scuffle.The police on Monday arrested Dhirendra Kumar, the shopowner, who has been named as the main accused in the MLA assault case. He too lodged an FIR against the Belganj MLA.The MLA, in his FIR, said he stopped over at Sriram Tilkut Bhandar to buy ‘tilkut’ and ‘anarsa’ (sweet dishes) while he was returning to the town from Belaganj on Sunday night.“I gave money to my driver to buy sweets. After a while I saw him engaged in a verbal duel with the shop owner. Then I sent my bodyguard to enquire what was happening, but he too got involved in an argument with the shopkeeper,” the FIR said.

According to the FIR Surendra subsequently went up to the shop to intervene. “But the shop owner and his men poured hot oil on us… My staff and I were badly injured in the attack,” he said. The legislator also charged that some “criminals” in the area tried to snatch the firearms of his bodyguard at the behest of the shop owner.

In his counter complaint, the shopkeeper alleged that the bodyguard of the legislator assaulted him with the butt of his firearm over a delay in serving the sweets.“One of the items demanded by him was not ready, so I asked him to wait. This infuriated him,” the FIR said.However, according to reports the dispute started after the shop owner and customers objected to the driver and later the bodyguard jumping the queue as there was rush to buy ‘tilkut’.

It is upon this that the bodyguard reportedly assaulted the shop owner. In return he was thrashed by the crowd.This prompted Surendra to come down from his vehicle to rescue the driver and the bodyguard but by then shopowners from nearby had gathered.

One of them threw hot sugar mix on the MLA. He sustained burn injuries in neck, chest and some other parts of the body. He also suffered injury inside the ear but due to swelling, it could not be examined.
The shopowner too was injured.

While the MLA was rushed to ANMMCH, about seven to eight km from the spot, the injured shopkeeper was taken to the Sadar (Pilgrim) Hospital, which is just half a kilometres from his shop.