Ranchi: Two days after he was injured in a baton-charge by prison guards, former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda Wednesday said there was a conspiracy to kill him in jail.
Koda is presently being treated at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) here for a fractured hand.
Talking to a local news channel, Koda said, "There was a conspiracy to kill me. I was beaten up by jail policemen and when I fell on the ground, they hit me with batons on my chest."
"The condition of common people can be understood when a former chief minister and Lok Sabha MP is beaten this way," he added.
Koda was allegedly leading a protest inside jail Monday to demand better quality food for the inmates.
"I was taken to hospital three hours after the incident. I was sitting on dharna due to the poor food being given to prisoners. When I was sitting on the dharna, the policemen started beating me," he added.
A delegation led by union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, the Lok Sabha MP from Ranchi, which also included Madhu Koda`s wife Geeta, met Governor Syed Ahmad Wednesday and sought a probe into the incident.
Geeta Koda alleged there was a conspiracy against her husband.
"We are being harassed. In the past, I was not allowed to meet my husband in jail. There is a move to shield the officials involved in the incident," she said.
Chief Minister Arjun Munda has announced a probe by a retired judge.
Koda has been in jail since November 2009 in a Rs.4,000 crore money laundering scam. He and four former ministers are kept in a VIP cell of the jail here.
He is the Lok Sabha member from Singhbhum. He was the chief minister September 2006-August 2008.
IANS
