Scindia aide Parashar who was thrashed and robbed. Picture by Praveen Chitransh

Bhopal, April 15: Malkhan Singh is sure Jyotiraditya Scindia would not have been attacked in the Chambal had he been around.

The minister, on his first visit to his constituency since taking charge, was travelling from Guna to Shivpuri around 10.30pm on Sunday in a cavalcade of 20 cars when dacoits struck. His additional private secretary, Purushottam Parashar, was thrashed and looted.

Locals said this was the first time a Scindia motorcade was attacked in the Gwalior region that the family once ruled. The Guna MP had arrived in Gwalior the same day from Delhi by Shatabdi.

“I will soon find out who was responsible for it. I will also ensure that law catches up with the culprits,” Malkhan, a reformed dacoit, told Scindia, adding that he should have taken him along.

The Congress MP, inducted as junior IT and telecom minister in Manmohan Singh’s government in the last shuffle, had a close shave.

A local Kanjar gang had reportedly spread ranpi (sharp nails covered in cow dung) on the road his convoy was taking. Scindia escaped but the Toyota Innova carrying five persons, including his secretary, was trapped.

The driver stopped, suspecting a flat tyre, but asked other cars to keep pace with the minister. Within minutes, however, the gang of seven or eight appeared from nowhere and demanded money, mobile phones and watches.

Kanjars are a community that believe they must work for their living and not take anything for free. So, the robbers were not content with snatching the valuables. They also thrashed their victims.

Parashar bore the brunt as he had called Scindia on speakerphone, hoping that hearing “Maharaj” on the other end, the robbers would flee. But the move backfired, and the dacoits attacked the private secretary with a sharp weapon.

Scindia, unsure of the exact location of his men, sent the local Congress MLA and police to search for Parashar but by the time they reached, the miscreants had fled. Parashar and others had to be rushed to Shivpuri hospital.

Malkhan, the sarpanch of Oraon village in Guna, said angrily that had he been around, nobody would have dared attack the convoy. “The local dacoits seem to be out of their mind. These are not the kind of dacoits we used to have. How dare they try to belittle the Maharaja of Scindia, the most benevolent public servant of our times?” he fumed.

Malkhan, a legendary Chambal dacoit along with Man Singh and Mohar Singh till his surrender in 1972, is now in the Congress. “We were baghis (rebels) who fought against social inequalities. We never snatched chains or insulted women. Chambal is indeed a changed place now,” he said.

Many residents, however, saw a “silver lining” in the incident. The Shivpuri-Shajapur stretch on the Agra-Mumbai national highway is far from safe with looting and kidnapping rampant. “Perhaps the high-profile incident involving Scindia would result in some security,” said a local resident.

State director-general of police Anand Rao Pawar said a high-level inquiry has been ordered, adding that night patrol and the number of checkpoints would be increased.