‘Do you know who I am?’ BJP leader’s son assaults toll staff in Karnataka

A CCTV footage, purportedly showing a BJP leader’s son and his friends assaulting and verbally abusing a staffer at a toll booth on the Vijayapura-Kalaburagi highway after being asked to pay the toll, has gone viral, police said on Friday.

The incident, which purportedly occurred at Kannoli on Thursday, was captured on a CCTV camera, they said.

In the video that went viral on social media, the BJP leader Vijugouda Patil’s son Samarthgouda and his friends were seen assaulting and abusing the toll booth staffer, police added.

According to police, Samarthgouda and his friends were travelling from Vijayapura to Sindagi in a vehicle. When they were stopped at the toll booth and asked to pay the toll, Samarthgouda allegedly told the staffer, “Do you know who I am? I am the son of BJP leader Vijugouda Patil.”

When the staffer asked, “Which Vijugouda?”, Samarthgouda and his friends assaulted and abused him, as seen in the video, police said.

Other toll booth staff intervened to prevent the situation from escalating. In the incident, Sangappa, a toll staffer, sustained injuries and was rushed to the Sindagi Taluk Hospital, police said.

“We have not received any complaint from the toll staff in this regard yet,” a senior police officer said.