Patna: Bihar Museum additional director JPN Singh has been sacked after he allegedly hit the museum's director, Mohammed Yusuf, on Sunday.

Although Singh denied he had physically attacked the director, an FIR was lodged against him at Kotwali police station for allegedly assaulting Yusuf in the director's chamber on the second floor of Bihar Museum. Taking swift action, the department of art, culture & youth terminated Singh's contract with immediate effect.

Department principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad told The Telegraph: "The additional secretary carried out a probe and it was found that the charges levelled by director against Singh are true. Singh's contract with the Bihar Museum has been terminated.

"The incident is shocking and the department will not accept such unruly behaviour of any official," Prasad added.

Yusuf, who joined the Bihar Museum as director on February 14, told The Telegraph: "I was in my official chamber. Singh, whose chamber is adjacent to mine, entered my office and started abusing me. After a brief altercation, Singh caught hold of my collar and started assaulting me without any reason."

Yusuf's spectacles were broken and he was bleeding from his nose.

The Bihar Museum staff were stunned and shocked.

"It was around 12 noon when we heard noises from the director's chamber," an official of the museum said under cover of anonymity. "We were shocked to see the director coming out from his chamber screaming. His nose was bleeding and additional director JPN Singh was shouting at him."

Sources said that director Yusuf and additional director Singh were having differences over some projects of the museum for the past few months, and Sunday's incident was a fallout of differences in the style of functioning of the two senior-most officials of the Bihar Museum.

Singh, however, denied he had assaulted Yusuf.

"The charges levelled against me are baseless," Singh told The Telegraph. "I have 40 years of experience in the museum field. I had differences of opinion with the director, but I did not hit him."

Yusuf, an artist, worked at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, a multi art centre. Yusuf (66) graduated in fine arts and sculpture from Gwalior Art College. Later he moved to Bhopal and assisted J. Swaminathan, who was instrumental in establishment of the Bharat Bhawan.

Before Yusuf, Singh was director of Bihar Museum.

Singh was also director of Patna Museum, the oldest museum in Bihar.

The Bihar Museum was inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar on October 2 last year. It is a world-class museum spread across 13.5 acres along Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, better known as Bailey Road, and has been built at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

Canada-based Lord Cultural Resources was the master consultant for the Bihar museum, and Japanese firm Maki and Associates was the main architectural consultant that executed the design with the help of Mumbai-based Opolis Architects. The foundation stone was laid on June 9, 2013, and construction work started in July the same year.