JD-U LS nominee booked for assaulting party colleague

Munna Shukla, the Janata Dal-United nominee from Bihar's Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency, has been booked for allegedly assaulting and intimidating the party's legislator Ajit Kumar, police said Monday.

Ajit Kumar, a former minister and legislator from Kanti assembly seat, filed a complaint against Shukla Sunday night.

Kumar has alleged that Shukla and his supporters assaulted him in full public view in Samarastapur village in Muzaffarpur district when he refused to accompany him to an election meeting to be addressed by party national president Sharad Yadav Sunday.

"When I said I was unable to accompany him, Shukla and his armed henchmen started roughing me up. I was saved by my supporters and local residents," Kumar stated in his complaint.

Muzaffarpur Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Kumar said a case was registered against Shukla Sunday night.

Shukla has refuted all the charges made by Kumar, who was dropped from the cabinet by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last year and has been reportedly unhappy with the JD-U leadership.

Shukla was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 for the murder of former Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiyah. However, the Patna High Court later acquitted him in the case.

He is also an accused in the murder of former minister Brij Bihari Prasad. He faces over a dozen more criminal cases and is feared for his muscle power.

The JD-U legislator from Lalganj assembly seat is pitted against central minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh in Vaishali, which will go to the polls April 23.