Shahjahanpur (UP), Oct 6 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested five people on Friday, days after an under-construction road stretch was dug up by some people over non-payment of "commission" by the contractor.

The road, being laid by the public works department (PWD), connects Shahjahanpur to Budaun. A half-a-kilometre stretch of it was dug up with the help of a bulldozer on October 2.

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The main accused was identified as Jagveer Singh, who introduced himself as the representative of Veer Vikram Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Katra.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashok Kumar Meena told PTI, "As soon as the matter came to our notice, we formed three teams to arrest the accused. Accused Panchu, Pawan (bulldozer driver), Surjeet, Rambaran and Vinod, the brother of the main accused Jagveer, have been arrested."

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He said the bulldozer has also been recovered.

"We have added Section 386 (extortion) of IPC in the FIR. Investigation in the matter is underway and all the accused will be arrested," the police officer said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took a note of the incident on Thursday and ordered for full recovery of the damage from those who have dug the road, a senior official said.

An FIR was registered on a complaint from Ramesh Singh, the manager of the construction company, against 15-20 unidentified people. The complainant has alleged that one of the accused is the representative of Veer Vikram Singh.

The FIR was lodged under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act on October 3.

The complainant has alleged that Jagveer Singh, who introduced himself as the representative of the MLA, intimidated the employees of the construction company on several occasions and demanded a "5 per cent commission" (money to carry out the construction work) from the firm.

"When this commission was not given, they dug up half a kilometer of the road built by us with a bulldozer on October 2," he alleged in his complaint.

Asked about the development, MLA Veer Vikram Singh said on Thursday that accused Jagveer Singh is not his representative, but accepted that he is a BJP worker.

"I have nothing to do with him," 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)