BJP MLA denies beating toll plaza employee

a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rakesh Rathore was caught slapping a toll plaza employee in Bareilly.

Lucknow, April 20: BJP MLA Rakesh Rathore on Thursday denied he was the politician who beat up a toll plaza employee in Uttar Pradesh. The Sitapur legislator told that he neither owns a Scorpio car as shown in a video which has gone viral nor has he been to New Delhi in the last six months.

"This is not me. The person shown in the video is Mahendra Yadav, a Samajwadi Party leader from Biswa. It is sad the media aired the video and the news without any verification," he said.

The video grab, reportedly two days old, shows a man alleged to be the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator engaging in a spat with the toll booth staff and then beating up an employee.

The politician then speeds away with the cavalcade of vehicles accompanying him without paying the toll. The politician and his henchmen are also shown vandalizing the barrier.

The incident happened at the Fatehganj (West) toll plaza on the Moradabad-Bareilly highway. The victims have lodged a complaint with the police.

A police official in Bareilly said since there were two versions of the incident, they will go through the CCTV footage before taking action.

IANS