Santosh Kumar Garg in Dhanbad on Saturday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, Nov. 17: Baghmara block development officer (BDO) Santosh Kumar Garg was today provided a bodyguard following an attack on him yesterday.

Village pramukh Ravina Devi, her husband Manoj Paswan and deputy pramukh Vinod Sao assaulted the BDO in his chamber at the Baghmara block office, 25km from Dhanbad, yesterday.

Condemning the incident, members of Jharkhand Administrative Staff Association led by Dhanbad DDC Ratan Kumar met Dhanbad DC Prashant Kumar today.

Trouble apparently started when the village pramukh came to know that the BDO had allotted a Rs 2 lakh contract for construction of a chamber at his office to Vijeta Construction without her approval. Accompanied by her husband and the deputy pramukh, she stormed in to the BDO’s chamber yesterday and thrashed him with sticks. The BDO was admitted to PMCH.

Following the attack, Garg filed an FIR at Baghmara police station. Ravina Devi also lodged an FIR against the BDO, alleging that when she went to his office to ask about official work related to village development, the BDO caught her by the hair and pushed her out of his room, all the while abusing her about her caste.