Patna: Former Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary on Tuesday alleged that he was roughed up by a mob at a village in Nawada but police denied the charge.

According to Choudhary, the attack on him took place when he had gone to Apsar village, around 130km southeast of Patna, to console the bereaved family members of Tale Manjhi, a Dalit who was allegedly killed by a group of influential people on February 12. The police recovered a half-burnt body from the cremation site in Nawada the next day.

At Nawada, on his return from the village, Choudhary, who has been speaking out against the government and his party JDU, said that had security personnel not intervened, an untoward incident could have taken place with him. "A mob of around 200 people first prevented me from meeting the family members. When I didn't succumb, they hurled abuses and pelted me with stones," he said.

He said Dalits were being victimised by the influential people. "Dalits are feeling insecure in Bihar these days as the number of attacks on them has risen during the present dispensation," Choudhary told The Telegraph over phone.

To buttress his point, Choudhary said that one Dalit, Chandrika Manjhi, was killed and another, Chhote Lal Manjhi, injured at Pansagwa village of the district on Monday night. Chhote Lal is being treated at the Nawada sadar hospital.

Contacted, Nawada superintendent of police Vikas Burman said a joint team of the Warsaliganj sub-divisional officer and the sub-divisional police officer has been constituted to probe the incident with the former Speaker. He, however, denied any murderous attack on Choudhary took place.

"We have received information that the relatives (of Tale Manjhi) and the local residents were protesting over the former Speaker's move to take the family members of the deceased to Nawada town on the pretext of providing them compensation. However, there is no report of any murderous attack on him," Burman told this paper over phone.

The SP said one Dharmendra Kumar alias Dharo Singh was arrested from his native village of Anjunar in Nawada district in connection with Tale Manjhi's murder on February 14. Raids were on to arrest others involved in the incident, he said.

On last night's murder of Chandrika Manjhi, Burman said seven persons have been named as accused in the FIR lodged with the Warsaliganj police station. Station house officer Manoj Kumar said the accused were absconding after the incident.