A case has been registered against a Congress MLA and a few others for allegedly facilitating the loot of urea at a distribution centre in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam district after farmers complained that they were not being supplied the fertiliser, police said on Friday.

The offence was registered against MLA Manoj Chawla of Alot constituency and Congress leader Yogendra Singh Jadaun and others for the incident that took place on Thursday evening, Superintendent of Police Abhishekh Tiwari told reporters.

Based on a complaint lodged by the centre’s in-charge, a case has been registered under sections 353 (deterring government servant for performing duties, 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 392 (robbery) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), he said. Efforts are on to identify others involved in the loot through a video of the incident, he said. Collector Narendra Kumar Suryavanshi and Tiwari said there was no shortage of urea in the district and the fertiliser was being distributed offline as well. According to eyewitnesses, Chawla came to the centre after some farmers complained that they were not getting urea from the centre. Officials were heard saying that they were unable to deliver urea due to an online glitch, which would be fixed in a day, they said.

The angry Congress MLA asked farmers present there to take away bags of the fertiliser and facilitated the loot by opening the shutter of the godown, they said. Before facilitating the loot, Chawla staged a protest at the centre, which he claimed was for the sake of farmers, they added. The video of the incident showing the Congress MLA in action has surfaced on social media.Meanwhile, Chawla has released a video stating that he will not be bogged down by the FIR and will continue his fight for farmers.