‘Opponents want to defame me’: Maharashtra BJP legislator on video with bar dancer

india

Updated: Sep 30, 2019 10:08 IST

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in Maharashtra, who was seen dancing with a bar girl in a now-viral video, has lodged a police complaint and accused his opponents of maligning his image ahead of the assembly elections.

Sanjay Puram, who represents Amgaon-Deori assembly seat in Gondia district, is seen holding the hand of a bar girl in a video and a liquor bottle while dancing on a Bollywood number.

Puram claimed that the video was “doctored” by his opponents and featured his “lookalike”. The tribal leader alleged that it was a “conspiracy” by his opponents ahead of the next month’s state elections.

“My rivals are scared of their defeat in the ensuing elections and hence they have hatched the conspiracy to defame me ahead of the elections,” he added.

“In the last five years, I have undertaken development work in my constituency. As there is no issue against me… a character assassination plot was hatched by them to malign me,” he said.

The Deori Police lodged a complaint against unidentified persons under section 500 or defamation of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Before this, BJP MLA Charan Waghmare was arrested on Saturday for allegedly outraging the modesty of a woman police official.

Waghmare, from Tumsar in Bhandara district, and the Tumsar city BJP chief Anil Jivkate had allegedly used abusive language against the officer, Rajni Tumsare, on September 18.