Khattar aide ‘assaults’ CM’s cook

Naveen S Garewal & Sushil Manav

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 10

In fresh trouble for the Manohar Lal Khattar government, cooks and sewadars working at the official residences of the Haryana Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and bureaucrats have gone on strike over the alleged assault on the CM’s cook by his “aide-de-camp (ADC)”.

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Anoop Kumar, 33, a cook at Khattar’s official residence, was allegedly assaulted by Rajnish Garg when he failed to provide him with a sandwich because there was no bread.

The incident took place on Thursday afternoon, but cooks and sewadars of the PWD (B&R) working at the residences of VVIPs assembled outside the MLA Hostel and staged a sit-in for over two hours today to protest the “high-handedness”. They demanded shifting of the 2003-batch IPS officer who allegedly kicked and slapped Anoop.

On Anoop’s complaint, the Chandigarh Police today recorded a daily diary register (DDR) entry at the Sector 3 police station and took Anoop to the General Hospital, Sector 16, for examination. “We have received Anoop’s complaint in which he has accused IPS officer Rajnish Garg of assault. However, we are yet to receive the medical report. We have recorded a DDR and will take further action in accordance with the report,” said ASI Bhagwat Dayal, the investigating officer. 

Garg  was earlier posted in Delhi as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing, before Khattar appointed him as his “ADC” to look after his tour plans in May last year. 

Anoop told The Tribune he was working in kitchen No. 2 at the CM’s residence when Garg’s PA rang up and asked Mahinder, another cook who answered the phone, to bring a sandwich for his boss.

Mahinder requested him to call the cook in kitchen No. 1, saying he did not have bread.

“A few moments later, the PA called up again and this time I answered the phone. He summoned me to Garg’s office. There, Garg started kicking and slapping me in the presence of Khattar’s OSD Neeraj Daftuar and PA Abhimanyu. Despite my pleas, Garg did not relent and even pushed aside Abhimanyu, who tried to intervene,” claimed Anoop, a native of Tehri (Uttarakhand).

Garg, son of an RSS leader from Bahadurgarh, could not be reached for his comments.