Soon after the audio clip of BJP MLA Raju Todsam harassing a contractor for money went viral, party sources said that he will not be given the ticket next time, reports The Quint.

The government civil contractor from Yavatamal has given a written complaint to police, accusing BJP MLA from Arni, Raji Todsam of ‘harassing him for money’. An audio clip, in form of a conversation between the contractor Shivadatta Sharma and Todsam.

The Call

“MLA Raju Todsam has been harassing me about financial transactions. I have made an audiotape of the conversation, where he is threatening me, viral on Thursday. The MLA threatened me, saying he would see ‘How I carry out any work in his (Todsam’s) area unless the transactions are made’. I am submitting the complaint because I think there’s a danger to my life,” Sharma has said in this complaint to the Wadgaon police station in Yavatmal, as per a report by The Indian Express.

When The Logical Indian contacted the Wadgaon police station, they weren’t available for a comment.

The police, however, haven’t registered a FIR yet, since Shivdatta Sharma had just given the complaint written on paper. Superintendent of Police, M Rajkumar, told The Indian Express, “I have also heard the audio tape that has gone viral, to check the veracity of the tape, we must have a regular FIR.”

In the audio, the caller is heard is asking another person to “better carry out some financial transaction to carry out construction in his area”.The other person is initially heard pleading his inability to do so since his son is in lying in state of coma for the past one year, in Pune. The tone of the voice changes into an angry one. However, the caller seems unfazed and warns the receiver of raising “quality control” issues to stop the work.

Following this, the contractor said that he would escalate the issue with the Yavatamal minister and BJP leader Madan Yerawar. Todsam then asks him if he was issuing a threat. He further said that he was going to talk to the chief minister about it.

The receiver then asked the caller, if he owned the area where the contractor was carrying out the civil works. At this juncture, the receiver also tells the latter to do whatever he can.

The Logical Indian take

The Logical Indian community condemns the actions by Raju Todsam. It is commendable that Shivadatta Sharma was courageous enough to record the audio and bring it to the forefront. It is a rare occasion when such threat calls have actually come to the notice of the common mass. There must be several other incidents, happening rampantly around us, but we hardly get to know about them.

We appeal to BJP party authorities to take strict actions against the MLA in context. Merely cancelling Raju Todsam’s tickets for the next election is surely not the way to ensure that such atrocities are not repeated in the future. Exemplary action should be taken against him so that nobody faces such harassment.

You can listen to the audio clip in the YouTube video below: