DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh police said on Wednesday they had arrested a ruling party lawmaker on charges of assaulting two journalists from a private television station.

Video footage of Golam Maula Rony from the Awami League party beating Independent TV reporters has gone viral on social media, embarrassing the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before general elections due in January.

The TV station filed a case against Rony alleging that the lawmaker and his friends assaulted two journalists of its special investigative team as they waited at his office following a tip that he would receive a cash bribe.

He was picked up from the capital after a judicial magistrate issued an arrest warrant against him, Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP.

Rony has filed a counter-complaint against the owner of the station Mr Salman F. Rahman, saying that the tycoon set the station's reporters on him after he accused Rahman of a recent share market scam.

The young lawmaker from a southern coastal district is a newcomer to politics and has been a regular feature in television talk-shows. He denies bribery.