The Odisha Police on Monday arrested Biju Janata Dal leader Saroj Meher for allegedly making a junior engineer do sit-ups in public, PTI reported. The incident occurred on June 5 and came to light after a video of the episode started doing the rounds on social media.

Police picked up Meher from a hotel in Nuapada earlier on Monday and brought him to Bolangir for questioning. “He was arrested after sustained interrogation,” the Hindustan Times quoted Bolangir’s superintendent of police K Siva Subramani as saying. The BJD leader was also taken for a mandatory medical check-up.

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He will be produced before the court of an additional district judge, where the police will seek his custody for further questioning. Meher is likely to move the court with a bail plea.

On June 5, the Patnagarh MLA had visited Belpada block in Odisha’s Bolangir city, where residents had complained that the Mandal–Belpada bypass road had been constructed poorly. Meher then called junior engineer Jayakanta Sabar – who belongs to the tribal community – of the Public Works Department to the location and reprimanded him in front of the residents. He also asked the engineer to do 100 sit-ups.

After a statewide furore, Meher had apologised for his action and claimed that he did it to assuage public anger. However, Sabar’s wife had filed a case against him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Bolangir District Tribal Welfare Association had threatened to protest outside the Odisha Assembly on June 26 as there was no visible progress in the case.