Newly-elected Biju Janata Dal MLA Saroj Kumar Meher on Thursday apologised to a junior engineer for forcing him to do sit-ups in public the previous day, PTI reported. A case has been filed against him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Patnagarh MLA had on Wednesday visited Belpada block in Odisha’s Bolangir city, where residents complained that the Mandal–Belpada bypass road had been constructed poorly. Meher then called a junior engineer of the Public Works Department to the location and reprimanded him in front of the residents.

Meher also asked the engineer to do 100 sit-ups. The engineer initially only apologised for his alleged laxity that led to the poor construction. But after Meher threatened him with “mob thrashing”, the engineer did some sit-ups on the road.

After being criticised by several quarters, Meher on Thursday apologised for his action and claimed that he did it to assuage public anger.

“I am sorry for the incident,” Meher said. “But, I was compelled to ask the engineer to do sit-ups in the wake of public resentment...People were angry over the poor quality of road construction and they could have harmed the engineer if I did not ask him to do sit-ups.”

He added: “The situation was not under my control as the angry people demanded punishment for the erring engineer.”

The engineer later claimed that Meher had also asked an executive engineer to slap him, PTI reported.

The PWD engineer’s wife filed a police complaint against Meher on Thursday, accusing him of publicly humiliating her husband.