Jharkhand CM, assembly speaker appear before Ranchi court

The NHAI officials have alleged that the leaders ransacked the NHAI office during a dharna.

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Rai on Thursday appeared before a civil court here in connection with ransacking of an NHAI office here.

According to a case lodged by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the leaders staged a dharna on November 21, 2013, before the NHAI office at Ashok Nagar and demanded that dilapidated condition of the Bahragora-Ranchi-Patna NH-33 be improved.

The NHAI officials have alleged that the leaders ransacked the NHAI office during the dharna.

Besides the three, five other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were also named in the case. At the time the attack on the NHAI office took place, Das was an opposition leader.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Rai told reporters here: "We were staging a peaceful dharna but an FRI was lodged against us..."