An attempt to murder charge was added to a 2007 land grabbing case against Akshay Kanti Bamb, the Congress party's candidate for the Indore Lok Sabha seat, just five days before he withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP earlier this week.

The Congress had fielded Bamb against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani from the Indore seat, where voting will take place on May 13.

A PTI news agency report said the murder charge was added to the 17-year-old case on the directions of a court in Indore on April 24.

On April 5, the case victim, Yunus Patel, "decided to approach a first class magistrate with an application requesting to add section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC which was accepted by Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) on April 24", the report said.

The court directed the Madhya Pradesh Police to add section 307 against the former Congress candidate, his father Kantilal Bam, as well as some other unnamed people.

It also asked Akshay Kanti and Kantilal Bam to appear before a sessions court on May 10.

The case registered on October 4, 2007, accuses Akshay Kanti and the others of assaulting Patel over a land dispute under sections 294 (use of obscene words, abusive language), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

In his application filed on April 5, Patel further alleged that at the behest of Akshay Kanti, a person named Satveer Singh fired at him with a gun.

However, Satveer Singh has died, while two other accused, identified as Sohan alias Sonu and Manoj, were currently on the run, PTI reported.

Source: India Today