An FIR has been registered against Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi here for allegedly making "hateful and derogatory" remarks against Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his father and JMM chief Shibu Soren, police said on Thursday.
JMM worker Sonu Tirkey, a resident of Kanke in Ranchi district, lodged the FIR against Marandi for allegedly making the remarks during his ongoing 'Sankalp Yatra' across the state.
The FIR was registered under Sections 500 (defamation), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), and 504(2) (intentional insult) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.
The BJP said it was the fourth "government-sponsored case" against Marandi in recent times, with the other three being lodged in Simdega, Latehar and Deoghar. The BJP said the ruling dispensation was "acting out of desperation" seeing the massive support for Sankalp Yatra.
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Marandi, in his speeches made during the yatra, which he commenced on August 17 from the CM's constituency of Barhait, attacked the father-son duo and the JMM-Congress-RJD government in the state, alleging it "promoted nothing but loot and corruption".
Marandi will continue the yatra till October 10 in different phases, resolving to "free the state from hunger, corruption and misrule". The former chief minister, while hitting out at Soren, also alleged that a "tribal CM looted the tribals the most" and that law and order has deteriorated and development has come to a standstill under the current regime.
