Jamshedpur, Aug. 12: A health worker has lodged a written complaint against Bhim Singh Munda, chief minister Arjun Munda’s elder brother, for allegedly thrashing him on Monday afternoon in Ghurabandha area.

Bhim Singh stays at the chief minister’s Ghurabandha residence. The health worker, Sosodhar Mahato, was admitted to the orthopaedic ward of the MGM Hospital today.

JMM MP from Jamshedpur Sunil Mahto, who helped Sosodhar lodge a complaint with the police, said around 100 workers were deployed in Ghurabandha to spray DDT to check the spread of malaria. “On Monday, Bhim Singh beat up Sosodhar with a baton accusing him of using spurious pesticide,” he said. Bhim Singh threatened the health worker with dire consequences if he opened his mouth and ordered him to return to Boram in Patamda block of the district where he lived.

According to JMM leaders, residents of Boram accompanied the victim to MGM Hospital today for treatment. “The villagers contacted us over the telephone. We rushed to MGM where Sosodhar told us about the incident,” Mahto said.

Bhim Singh could not be contacted for comments but Govindpur police confirmed they had received a complaint against him, forwarded by the police personnel at MGM Hospital. But they refused to comment about the action they intended to take.

District JMM president Ram Das Soren, who also stays in Ghurabandha, said: “When the health workers stopped coming from Tuesday we thought the health department had withdrawn its staff. The local Bustee Vikas Samiti met on Tuesday and decided it would express their reservation about the sudden withdrawal of workers before the district administration. Now we know it was an attempt to hush up the matter,” Soren said, demanding Bhim Singh’s arrest.