BJP MLA’s son, supporters seen on CCTV thrashing toll plaza staffer in Mathura

Mathura:
The son and supporters including the driver of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Uttar Pradesh were caught on CCTV purportedly thrashing a toll plaza employee on Tuesday. The legislator, for his part, cried foul and alleged he was targeted “purposely”. A video showed that as MLA Pooran Prakash's car was passing through the toll plaza, a boom barrier fell on its roof. Following the incident, his son and supporters came out of the car and thrashed a staffer at Mahuvan toll plaza near Mathura. “I was moving towards CIRG (Central Institute for Research on Goats) at Makhdoom near Mathura and at about11 am reached Mahuwan toll plaza on Agra-Delhi highway. The escort car passed and my car followed it but all of sudden the boom fell dangerously on my car while moving ahead,” the MLA from Baldev said. Although boom barriers are calibrated to come down after a vehicle crosses it, Prakash alleged that the barrier was dropped purposely. “An MLA's vehicle is exempted from toll tax yet the toll staff dropped the boom on my car with an intention to cause life threat to me and I had to get down to enquire about the matter,” Prakash said and alleged that the toll staff bears ill will against him because he had been seeking exemption from toll charges for locals living within 20 kilometers of the toll plaza. “They dropped that barrier on our car, despite seeing the big writings of ‘vidhayak' on it. This is nothing new, they often do such things,” he said. The MLA lodged his complaint at Farah police station seeking action against the staff at Mahuwan toll plaza. He denied that the toll plaza staffer was thrashed.
The officer in charge of Farah police station in Mathura who did not want to be named confirmed that the MLA had lodged a complaint and said the matter would be investigated after a case is registered.
The toll staff maintained that that the boom barrier came down automatically after the escort car passed ahead of MLA's car and the staff present made effort to stop it but couldn't. They complained of misbehavior and thrashing by the MLA's supporters while he remained a spectator to the hooliganism.