Video of scuffle between MLA’s son, toll staff goes viral

Our Correspondent

KULLU, June 21

A video showing the scuffle between the son of Kullu MLA Sunder Singh Thakur and employees of a toll plaza at Dohrunala has gone viral on social media. Kullu SP Gaurav Singh said an FIR had been registered after receiving a complaint from Aman, an employee of the toll plaza, yesterday. The police have recovered the actual footage of the CCTV and other evidences to ascertain the facts, he said.

The incident is reported to have taken place during the night of June 19. The video, recorded from a CCTV footage, shows the vehicle (SUV) of the MLA’s son, Eshaan Thakur, being stopped at the toll plaza and an employee interacting with the occupants of the SUV. After some time, a second employee comes and a person from the SUV comes out and pushes the employee. A scuffle then ensues between the two. Later, Eshaan is seen interacting with a group of six to eight persons, reportedly employees of the toll plaza.

‘Intimated my son’

My son was intimidated by the toll plaza employees, who are used to misbehaving with commuters. Earlier too, there have been many instances of the public being harassed by the staff of the toll plaza. —Sunder Singh Thakur, Kullu MLA

In his post on the social media, the MLA’s son wrote that he tried to cross the toll plaza with Fastag but was asked to bring the vehicle in a different lane as the Fastag was not scanned. He stated that he had got a money deduction message on his phone but the toll plaza employees didn’t let him go and misbehaved with him. He had been stopped multiple times earlier as well because their system did not work. He showed them the payment receipt but an employee kept arguing in an abusive manner after which he got out of the car and pushed him. Eshaan stated that both the employees started fighting with him, which was edited in the video going viral.

He wrote that things calmed down after his friends reached on the spot and a compromise was reached. The next day, he went to the toll plaza and apologised and things were pacified.

Meanwhile, Thakur said his son was intimidated by the employees of the toll plaza, who were used to misbehaving with the commuters. Earlier too, there had been many instances of the public being harassed by the employees of the toll plaza. A group of six to eight persons attacked Eshaan while he was alone and they had registered a cross FIR against them today. The matter was being unnecessarily politicized, the MLA alleged.