Mumbai, Dec 19 (PTI) A First Information Report has been registered against former Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan and several others over an alleged assault on the director of a Jalgaon-based educational institute, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place in Pune in January 2018. Mahajan, a BJP leader, was not present at the spot then but he is accused of threatening a man over video call, police said.

The former minister denied the allegations.

Vijay Bhaskarrao Patil, a director of Jalgaon Jilha Maratha Vidya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj, had approached Nimbhora Police Station in the district with the complaint earlier this month, an official said.

Patil told police that in 2018 he and his colleague had gone to Pune to collect old records of the institute from its former secretary Tanaji Bhoite on the instruction of his elder brother Narendra Patil, who was chairman of the institute.

While they were in Pune, Nilesh Bhoite, one of the accused, allegedly told Patil to hand over the institute to him as Mahajan was interested in it.

He also made a video call to Mahajan, who allegedly told Vijay Patil to ask all directors to submit their resignations and hand over the reins to Nilesh Bhoite.

The accused offered Patil Rs 1 crore, but when he declined, he was taken to a flat in Sadashiv Peth area, where one of the accused hit Patil in the head and threatened him at knife-point, the FIR mentioned.

The Nimbhora police registered a case under IPC sections 331 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort confession), 384 (extortion), 465 (forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) on December 9.

The case was transferred to Kothrud police in Pune for further probe, the officer added.

Speaking to a newschannel, Mahajan said the allegations were concocted.

"There has been an attempt to drag me in vendetta politics," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)