Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Tunnaji Pandey was arrested on Sunday for allegedly molesting a minor girl in Bihar.. The party suspended him soon after his arrest. Pandey, a legislator from the state’s Siwan area, allegedly assaulted the girl while both were travelling on the Purvanchal Express. According to the girl’s complaint, he tried to molest her while she was sleeping, and then later also attempted to take her to the bathroom.

However, Pandey has denied the allegations, saying he was “just taking out [his] phone charger” and that he “didn’t even know whether it was a boy or a girl who was sleeping”. The girl reported the incident to a woman police officer on the train, who filed the complaint in Vaishali district. Pandey was earlier named in a Rs10-lakh extortion bid, Financial Express reported.