A Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), whose office here was vandalised two days ago, was arrested on Friday alongwith a local BJP leader for allegedly staging the attack to influence the hearing of a pre-arrest bail plea of a man.
SDM Anil Sabkale was found to be in cahoots with director of Shri Krishna University Pushpendra Singh Gautam, who did not want another private university to come up in the area, the police said.
Abhay Singh Bhadoria had purchased land for setting up his Khajuraho University in the district.
Gautam, with Sabkale's help, got the land declared as government property and filed a case against Bhadoria, said Chattarpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Tilak Singh.
The case was to come up for hearing on February 5, and Bhadoria was expected to file an application for anticipatory bail, the official said.
To establish that Bhadoria was a dangerous character and should not be granted pre-arrest bail, Sabkale allegedly conspired with Gautam and had his own office attacked.
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The SDM then lodged a complaint against unidentified miscreants, SP Singh said.
The police, while tracking call records of suspects, realised that Gautam and Sabkale were in touch with each other before and after the attack.
Based on Call Detail Records, the police zeroed in on Gautam, Sabkale and the BJP's minority cell leader Javed Akthar, the official said.
It was Akthar who allegedly arranged goons for the attack, he said.
The SDM tried to establish in the court that Bhadoria and others were behind the attack on his office as he had launched a drive against land mafia.
The court, however, granted pre-arrest bail to Bhadoria.
Apart from Sabkale, the police arrested Gautam, Akthar, Amit Singh Parihar, Arjun Shrivas, Rajendra Singh and Santosh Soni under relevant sections of the IPC, additional superintendent of police Jairaj Kuber said.