Patna: India’s Federal Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh has been booked by Patna police in a land grabbing case, in what has come as a major embarrassment for ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the centre headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Police registered a case of forgery and political conspiracy against the federal minister on Wednesday on the directive of the district court.

In the case registered with the Danapur police station in Patna district, the federal minister along with 32 other persons has been made the accused for allegedly grabbing the land of a Dalit villager.

Singh, a senior BJP leader, represents Nawada seat (Bihar) in the Lok Sabha, Lower House of the Parliament.

Police said the complaint has been filed under various sections of the Indian Police Code and Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In his complaint petition, Ram Narayan Prasad, a resident of Aashopur village in Danapur block, alleged the accused had helped in the “illegal sale” of a hectare of his ancestral land on the basis of forged land rent receipts.

He alleged the ancestral land which he got from his maternal uncle Bipat Ram was first illegally sold in 1957 and subsequently in 1972 before it was gifted to the third person in 1992, according to media reports.

According to the complainant, he reported the matter to the police and other authorities concerned seeking help but as they showed no interest in it, he finally moved the court for help.

Eventually, the court ordered for registration of case against all 33 accused persons. “We have registered the case and the matter is being investigated,” Danapur station house office Sandeep Kumar Singh told the media on Thursday.

Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav mounted heavy attacks on the prime minister after his ministerial colleague was made a named accused in a land-grab case.

“Mr Prime Minister what honesty does your government talk about when your cabinet colleague is grabbing lands of the poor instead of providing them homes?” tweeted Tejashwi who was the deputy chief minister in the previous Grand Alliance government. He also urged the PM to conduct an inquiry at his own level.

Tejashwi further hit out at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who had broken alliance with his erstwhile ruling grand alliance on the issue of corruption just after a case was registered against him by the CBI last year.

“Will you resign now? Will you move out of alliance with BJP now? Where has your morality vanished now? Do you have any answer?” Tejashwi asked in a series of his tweet. He also dared the chief minister to seek point-wise replies from the federal minister over the issue of corruption the way he was asked to reply.

He also ridiculed the mysterious silence of deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi asking, “I am wondering how the ‘rumour master’ who was holding one after another Press conferences against me earlier, has suddenly gone silent over the issue.” “It seems Sushil Modi’s mouth has been sealed with curd or you too have a share in the land,” he asked.

The minister said he couldn’t react without obtaining all the details. “I got the information from the Tweets of Tejahswi. It seems he is the architect of the case,” the minister tweeted. He also suggested Tejashwi to better think about saving sinking ship of his party after his father Lalu Prasad’s conviction in the fodder scam.

Singh had earlier come under fire after Rs1.4 million (Dh79,982) in cash, US$600 (DH2,203), seven expensive wrist watches, 10 sets of gold jewellery, 14 silver coins and a video camera was stolen from his Patna residence in July 2014. While Singh had reported to the police that only about Rs50,000 was stolen from his house, the police was surprised to recover a large amount of cash and jewellert after making some arrests. He, however, later told the police the said money belonged to his “cousin”.