SAGAR: A BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district sent his resignation to the assembly Speaker and staged a protest demanding action against a doctor for allegedly seeking money from a family to issue a death certificate. Deori MLA Brij Bihari Pateriya staged a sit-in protest outside a police station on Thursday night and lifted the agitation, claiming that the BJP’s state leadership reprimanded him for making his grievances.

Sagar Superintendent of Police Vikas Sahwal said the MLA protested at Kesli police station from 11 pm to 12.30 am. He stopped the agitation after assurance that his demands would be looked into, Sahwal said. Talking to PTI on Friday, Pateriya said he regretted submitting the resignation, and he did so as he was angry and sad.

“I just wanted a report of a poor man to be lodged (against the doctor). It is the police’s duty to investigate and write a report (FIR),” he said. The legislator said a 70-year-old man’s family had sought a death certificate from a doctor stating that he had died of snakebite and they needed the compensation.

He alleged that the doctor demanded Rs 40,000 from the family to issue the certificate. Pateriya said Rs 4 lakh is given as compensation to the kin of a person who dies of snakebite. “This is a family of labourers. They thought they were entitled to compensation after their father’s death. This doctor demanded 10 per cent, Rs 40,000, for writing snakebite (in the death certificate). The family also presented the dead snake (at the hospital),” he claimed.

The MLA claimed the family arranged for Rs 10,000, but the doctor did not give in. “Hence, I sat in front of the police station and lifted the protest after the superintendent of police came there and accepted my demand to suspend the town inspector and assured the doctor’s suspension,” he said. Pateriya said the BJP’s state chief instructed him and told him that his demands were genuine and agreed upon.