New Delhi: Chhattisgarh police on Monday arrested a BJP leader, Devendra Pandey, and his son Shivam in an assault case, capping an ongoing feud between Pandey and former BJP home minister and veteran tribal leader Nankiram Kanwar. Kanwar had written to various authorities on his plans for an indefinite hunger strike in front of the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel’s residence in protest against what he said was police inaction. Kanwar had alleged that Pandey and his son had assaulted his son Sandeep Kanwar in Korba district of the state. Sandeep had pressed charges of assault 11 days ago. Since then, he has been putting pressure on the state government to initiate action against Pandey. The 77-year-old BJP veteran’s pressure worked as the police not only arrested Pandey and his son and booked them under various IPC sections for wrongful confinement, usage of abusive words, and death threats but also booked them under the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Korba police official Ramgopal Kariyare confirmed the arrests of Pandey, who is not only a local BJP leader but also a former chairperson of Cooperative Bank, and his son. In the complaint at the Rampur police station in Korba, Sandeep Kanwar had alleged that Pandey and his son had beaten him up, abused and confined him when he visited their house to get his money back. Sandeep said that Pandey reneged on his promise to get him an organisation membership, for which Pandey had taken Rs 20 lakh from him. The FIR also said that despite trying to get his money back for months, Sandeep alleged that Panday had been avoiding him and stopped responding to his calls. This prompted Sandeep to visit Pandey at his house where both of them got into a heated argument, and later, a brawl. Both Sandeep and Pandey had lodged their own respective FIRs but the police allegedly sat on the two for 11 days. Kanwar had alleged in his letters that Korba police and district administration were protecting those involved in committing atrocities against the tribals.