Over a dozen members of the Mahasangh stormed into the office of Gupta at Tehsil building yesterday afternoon and smeared Gupta's face with boot polish even before the latter could sense trouble. A peon from Gupta's office, Sanjay Dorlikar, who was present in the office too was not spared and was meted out with the same treatment. In the meantime, some workers ransacked the furniture of Gupta's office before leaving the scene.

Though the Tehsil office is a busy place, it took time for employees and officials from other offices to take note of the incident. And by the time they realised trouble, the irate Mahasangh workers had already escaped.

As a mark of protest, employees walked out of their offices and abstained from work demanding moresecurity to government officials dealing with common public everyday. Meanwhile, 24 workers of the Mahasangh have been rounded up by the city police for their alleged involvement in the incident.

According to the city police, a morcha of Adivasi Halba Mahasangh was taken out on Monday and was stopped at Akashwani square. The morchaites claimed that government officials were deliberately delaying issuance of caste certificates to the Halba community while other community members were able to procure them without much difficulty.

A delegation of the Mahasangh met Gupta following the morcha and urged him to expedite the process of issuance of caste certificates to them. Gupta, it is learnt, told the delegation that the process has already been initiated and certificates will be issued within a month. This, however, did not satisfy the Mahasangh workers, who demanded issuance of certificates on Monday itself, to which Gupta expressed his inability to do so and incurred the wrath of the agitated Mahasanghworkers.

In a press release, the Mahasangh has justified its act and said that the incident occurred since Gupta refused to issue certificates and even used abusive language to address some women members of the delegation. The Mahasangh has also demanded action against Gupta and Tehsildar Girish Joshi for their `vindictive' attitude towards the Halba adivasis.