Newly elected BJD MLA, Saroj Kumar Meher, who drew flak after a video purportedly showing him forcing a junior PWD engineer to do sit-ups in public went viral, on Thursday apologised for his action, while claiming that he did it to assuage public anger.

Later in the day, the engineer's wife lodged a police complaint against Meher, accusing him of publicly humiliating her husband after calling him from his house on Wednesday.

In the video, the Patnagarh MLA is seen reprimanding the engineer over alleged shoddy road construction work in his constituency in Bolangir district and asking him to do 100 sit-ups in the middle of the road. Meher claimed that he took the action as angry public could have harmed the engineer if he did not do anything.

"I am sorry for the incident. But, I was compelled to ask the engineer to do sit-ups in the wake of public resentment... People were angry over the poor quality of road construction and they could have harmed the engineer if I did not ask him to do sit-ups," Meher told reporters in Bolangir.

"The situation was not under my control as the angry people demanded punishment for the erring engineer," he said.

Earlier in the day, District Collector Arindam Dakua said a decision will be taken in the matter after the Patnagarh sub-collector files a report.

"I have sought a factual report from Patnagarh sub-collector on the incident. Any action will be taken based on the report from the sub-collector," Dakua said.

Bolangir Superintendent of Police K S Diva Subramani said following the complaint filed by the engineer's wife, the charges against Meher are being verified.

"The wife of the engineer made a written complaint against the MLA this evening. We are verifying the charges levelled against the legislator.