Samajwadi Party leader held for TV studio clash with rival

NOIDA: Samajwadi Party spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria was detained on a complaint filed by BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia in Noida on Saturday after a row that began on the sets of a national Hindi TV news channel debate escalated into a political confrontation.

Bhatia lodged a police complaint against Bhaduria for assault. The two were on the same panel during a debate in the afternoon. With Bhadauria being detained for questioning, Samajwadi Party workers surrounded Sector 20 police station, where the complaint was lodged, in the evening in protest.

Manoj Pant, the staion house officer of Sector 20 police station, said he apprehended trouble and escaped to the Expressway police station, which is around 15 minutes away.

Gaurav Bhatia is a resident of Eldeco Utopia in Sector 93.

He is an advocate with the Supreme Court. In his complaint, Bhatia said he had been invited to the news debate in the afternoon.

When the debate turned into a heated argument around 2.20pm, Bhadauria allegedly threatened Bhatia and assaulted him, his complaint said. Bhatia dialled 100, following which a police team was sent to the media house.

SP (city) Sudha Singh said that on the basis of a complaint, a report been lodged under the Section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Investigation is under way. We will speak when our investigation is over,” Singh said.

Later, Bhatia tweeted, “These are goons, not spokespersons.” Samajwadi MLC Udaiveer Singh lashed out at BJP, describing the detention as “height of dictatorship and misuse of power” in a tweet.