BJYM office-bearer named accused in attempt to burn engineer house in Jalna’s Bhokardan

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) office-bearer, from Jalna's Bhokardan, has been named the prime accused in a case of an alleged attempt to set ablaze an engineer's house, the police said. The police, citing the preliminary probe, said the act was aimed at pressurising the 29-year-old engineer to withdraw an earlier cheating case registered against the accused and four others.Based on a complaint lodged by civil engineer Sheikh Taleb, a resident of Mannat Mansion in Nakoda Nagar, an FIR was registered against the BJYM office-bearer and an unidentified accomplice at the Bhokardan police station under BNS sections 326(g), 324(4), 331, 62 and 3(5).Taleb, a civil contractor by profession, said in his complaint lodged on Feb 11 that he had gone to Madhya Pradesh with his family on Feb 10. Around 8am, his neighbour informed him over the phone that the exterior portion of his house had been burnt. Taleb returned to Bhokardan the same night and checked the CCTV footage, which allegedly showed that at 1.54 am, two men arrived on a motorcycle. He identified one of them as the BJYM office-bearer. According to the complaint, the BJYM office-bearer allegedly poured petrol from a green can on the front portion of the house, after which the unidentified accomplice set it on fire using a matchstick. The duo then left on the motorcycle. Some of the articles kept at the entrance were damaged in the incident.Inspector Kiran Bidve said a preliminary investigation indicates the accused had been pressurising the engineer to withdraw a cheating case or turn hostile. "The engineer failed to comply. Since committing the alleged offence, the accused duo have been on the run. Our teams will soon arrest them," he said.Police records show that in Feb 2024, Taleb had lodged a complaint alleging that the BJYM office-bearer and others had fraudulently opened a bank account in his name using forged signatures and withdrew Rs 11,21,328 by encashing a cheque issued by the Bhokardan municipal council for his contractual work. He also alleged that he was threatened outside the Bhokardan court in Feb 2025 to withdraw the case.BJYM Jalna district president Sampat Takle said the party took cognisance of the FIR. "The suspect is BJYM's office-bearer from Bhokardan. We will inquire into the matter and, depending on the findings, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with the party's policies," he said.The police said efforts were on to trace both accused.Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Valentine's day wishes, messages and quotes !