New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a Central Public Works Department (CPWD) Junior Engineer and a contractor claimed that they were locked up inside the house of Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel over a delay in work.
Contractor Narender Gupta, who was locked up in Patel's home said that the Minister's family accused them of delaying the work and then locked them up.
"Tiles didn't come today. It will come tomorrow morning. They accused us of delaying the work and then locked us up. We were told that we will be locked up until the tiles don't come," Gupta told ANI.
Ajmer Singh, Assistant Engineer at the CPWD, who rescued the contractor and the junior engineer, said, "If work is underway, there could be a delay because of any reason. It is not good to lock anyone inside the room for an hour and two."
"They (contractors) called us and we came here immediately to rescue (escape) them. We will talk to the minister and other people about what happened here. But we did not go to the police. We cannot have a rift with a minister. We are civic employees. We are here for work only and have the intention to work for every minister. But this the first time it has something like this has happened," he added.
Meanwhile, Anupriya's husband Ashish Singh cried foul, saying the allegations against them are baseless.
"I am not the in-charge of the bungalow and I was inside. When I came out, the workers were being scolded by the staff of the minister for delaying the work. If somebody thinks that we held them captive then they can take legal action against us," he said.