Rampurhat/Patna: The manager of the hotel in Bengal's pilgrim town of Tarapith on Tuesday reiterated his allegation that Bihar minister Suresh Sharma and his entourage were "fully drunk" when they brawled over refund of an online booking.
Pranab Manna, front officer manager of Sonar Bangla hotel, told this newspaper that he stood by his complaint lodged at the Rampurhat police station on Monday.
"As soon as they came close to me and started arguing with me, I got the smell of alcohol from most of the members of the team, including minister Suresh Sharma. Anyone could tell that they were drunk," said Manna. "I have to deal with drunk patrons regularly, so I know."
Other hotel employees and its manager corroborated Manna's claim.
"I distinctly remember seeing plastic bags in their hands in which bottles of alcohol could be seen," said Sunil Giri, the manager. "The minister was also drunk and his eyes were droopy. It was clear that most of the members, barring a lady, were fully drunk."
Minister Sharma has denied the allegations.
According to the employees, a white Tata Safari and a white Toyota Fortuner reached the hotel courtyard around 4pm. There were 11 people, including the minister and a lady. There was an armed security personnel in uniform.
"It was that armed man who held me at gunpoint and told me he will kill me. I was being beaten up with sticks repeatedly.... They were hurling racial abuse and threatening to shut down the hotel because Sharma is a minister and is very powerful," said Manna.
Trinamul's Rampurhat MLA Asish Banerjee, agriculture minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, said: "It is very surprising to note that the BJP minister and his associates are from a dry state. It goes to show what happens behind closed doors."
BJP's Birbhum district president Ramkrishna Roy, however, dismissed the allegation and said it was an attempt to cover up the "fact" that Sharma wasn't provided security. "It is fate that a minister was hackled and did not provided security," said Roy.
Sharma's private secretary Sanjeev Kumar on Tuesday lodged a complaint at the Rampurhat police station, alleging "abusive languages" against the minister and "entire people of Bihar", which the minister and his staff members objected to.
"The hotel staff... attacked the minister staff members when they insisted for rooms. The hotel personnel even tried to snatch the arms of the minister's bodyguard. They also assaulted the people in minister's entourage during which one of the persons injuries on his head another sustained injuries on his fingers (sic)," it stated.
The complaint, seeking action against the accused, has not mentioned any name.
Rampurhat police have initiated cases on the basis of both complaints, slapping identical, bailable sections of the IPC - 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 143 (unlawful assembly) - in both cases.
Before leaving the hotel at around 11 am, the minister said alleged a conspiracy to "harass".
"My people requested several times for security and escort. Even the Bihar government contacted the Bengal government, but after Jharkhand police left me at border, there was no police escort from Bengal," he said.
"It was nothing but a conspiracy to harass a minister from Bihar.... I would request the chief minister of Bengal that the name of state is getting maligned because of law and order problems. I will not visit again until the law and order situation is under control here," he added.
