Engineer Virendra Kumar Srivastava has left his residence since then and is staying with relatives. He has not attended his office and has requested his seniors to transfer him.

The engineer also informed his department, but they did not lodge a complaint with the police, thinking the police would not act against an MLA of the ruling party.

Ojha is an MLA from Fakharpur. The firm OjhaTraders is run by his brother Sandeep Ojha. It had received a contract to build a 5-km road between Kisanganj and Bhagwanpur in October.

Srivastava said during an inspection on December 9, he found that the stones used in the road were not crushed. Also, the labourers had started painting the crust without making proper measurements.

“When I objected, the MLA’s father Shivkant Ojha and their associates manhandled me,” said Srivastava.

Later in the day, nearly ten armed men went to his official residence in Bahraich. “I was not present, they assaulted a Class IV employee, Gangaram, posted at my home,” Srivastava said. The cost of the work is Rs 1 crore and the contractor has already been paid Rs 35 lakh, Srivastava said.

Executive Engineer Raj Kumar Singh confirmed the incident and said he had received a complaint from Srivastava.

“They (accused) even went to his official residence. Since then, Srivastava has been on leave. He first told me that he wanted to be shifted to any other project but later requested for a transfer from the district. I have sent a recommendation to the PWD headquarters in Lucknow,” Singh said.

Asked why he did not lodge a complaint with the police, Singh said, “We thought the police would support the legislator of the ruling party.”

The MLA, however, said, “The allegations against me are wrong. Srivastava might have made the charges because nearly a month ago, I had lodged a complaint with PWD authorities that Srivastava had committed financial irregularities.”

Shivkant Ojha said, “The junior engineer was trying to make an issue, taking advantage of the murder of a PWD engineer in Auraiya.”

Srivastava, however, had made the complaint to his seniors several days before the Auraiya murder.

Sandeep Ojha also admitted that an incident did take place on December 9.

He said: “I had an altercation with Srivastava because he did not measure the crust and delayed payment against construction of a 4-km road that I had completed.”