Bhubaneswar, April 21: A local court in Bolangir has summoned an MP and four of her aides for allegedly abusing and assaulting a villager.

Taking cognisance of a complaint filed by one Bhagabatia Nag, subdivisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) Jyotirmayee Acharya issued summons to BJP parliamentarian Sangeeta Singhdeo and the four others under Sections 294, 323, 506 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Bolangir MP, whose husband K.B. Singhdeo is the urban development minister, has several other criminal cases pending against her.

In April 2004 Nag had filed a complaint alleging that Singhdeo?s henchmen attacked him and four others, including the younger son of former Bolangir MP Balgopal Mishra, during a programme on November 16, 2003.

On that day, Singhdeo was scheduled to inaugurate a road at Kusumel Chhak near Bolangir town. Just before the MP?s arrival, her aide Gopalji Panigrahi allegedly started abusing Nag, who belongs to the Gond tribe. ?He cast aspersions on my low caste and threatened to kill me,? the petition alleged. ?A few minutes later Singhdeo reached the spot and started abusing us. She even exhorted her supporters to bump us off while hurling abuses against us.?

The petitioner said though he had filed an FIR against Singhdeo and her supporters, Bolangir police did not take any action. Instead, Nag and his acquaintances were arrested after the MP lodged a counter FIR.

Nag alleged that police submitted a false prosecution report in the court. As a result, they had to spend 15 days behind bars.