BJP functionary booked for assaulting toll plaza staff

A Bharatiya Janata Party functionary and his supporters were booked for allegedly assaulting the staff members at Jewar toll plaza on Wednesday evening.

“The suspect has been identified as Sanjeev Sharma, BJP’s Jewar Mandal President(Zonal President),” Surendra Singh Bhati, station house officer, Jewar said.

Amit Kumar, who works at the supervisor at the Jewar toll plaza, had filed a complaint in Jewar police station on Wednesday evening.

According to the complaint, Kumar along with three staff members —Paramveer, Vinod and Kuldeep – were on duty at 5:50 pm. “We were deployed at the toll plaza ramp on Jewar-Noida side, 36 km from the zero point. A Toyota Fortuner car and a Mahindra Scorpio car, on its way from Jewar, reached the toll. The suspects did not want to pay the toll. Toll collector Kuldeep(single name) asked them to wait so that he could check about the free passage with his supervisor,” Shrivastava said.

However, this led to an argument between the BJP workers and the toll plaza staff. Kumar said he had also reached the spot and allowed the passage of the two vehicles without making a payment. “But the SUV occupants were still angry as we did not immediately allow them to go without paying the toll when they first asked.

They parked the SUVs at some distance and returned to the toll plaza. They barged into the toll plaza cabin and assaulted the staff,” he said.

Security guard Vinod(single name) said the SUV occupants had identified themselves as BJP functionaries. “The toll plaza staff had asked them to show identification cards but they refused. This led to an argument and they thrashed us,” he said.

Despite several attempts, Sanjeev Sharma remained unavailable for a comment.

A CCTV footage of the incident was also widely circulated on social media. The incident had also disrupted traffic movement on the route for some time.

SHO Bhati said based on complaint a case was registered against Sharma and some of his unidentified supporters under section 506 (criminal intimidation), section 504 (intentional insult) and section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC. “We are investigating the CCTV footage to identify and arrest the suspects,” he said.

Vinod Sharma, BJP Noida spokesperson, refused to comment on the issue saying he was not aware of Sanjeev Sharma’s roles and responsibility in the party.

First Published: Jul 25, 2019 23:53 IST