Cong MP brandishes gun at toll plaza
13 Oct 2012 8:16 AM IST
On Friday, the Congress MP Vitthal Radadia brandished a gun at operators of a Vadodara toll booth who dared him to show his identity card to avoid toll tax, following which he was booked for rioting and threatening people.
The police filed an FIR against the Lok Sabha MP from Porbandar – who was apparently unaware that his gun-toting act at night was getting captured on the CCTV camera installed at the toll booth – under the Indian Penal Code sections relating to rioting and also under the Arms Act. Five more persons were also booked along with Radadia.
The MP, apparently enraged at the temerity of the toll plaza attendant, who asked for the original identity card after his driver had shown a photocopy, menacingly held his double-barreled shotgun aloft while stalking the area in front of the booth and repeatedly tapping the glass enclosure with the barrel. MPs are exempted from paying toll tax on highways across the country.
The incident happened near Karjan on National Highway 8 on the intervening night of 10 and 11 October.
The Congress said that the images beamed across TV channels were 'extremely disturbing' and shared the concern of those angry at the incident. Assembly polls are also due in Gujarat in December.
The party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in Delhi that the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee had been asked to submit a report on the incident. Radadia is considered a strongman in the Saurashtra region.
Radadia, however, defended his action, saying that he was surrounded by about 15 people carrying sticks after he told the plaza manager that as an MP he was exempt from paying the toll.
The police filed an FIR against the Lok Sabha MP from Porbandar – who was apparently unaware that his gun-toting act at night was getting captured on the CCTV camera installed at the toll booth – under the Indian Penal Code sections relating to rioting and also under the Arms Act. Five more persons were also booked along with Radadia.
The MP, apparently enraged at the temerity of the toll plaza attendant, who asked for the original identity card after his driver had shown a photocopy, menacingly held his double-barreled shotgun aloft while stalking the area in front of the booth and repeatedly tapping the glass enclosure with the barrel. MPs are exempted from paying toll tax on highways across the country.
The incident happened near Karjan on National Highway 8 on the intervening night of 10 and 11 October.
The Congress said that the images beamed across TV channels were 'extremely disturbing' and shared the concern of those angry at the incident. Assembly polls are also due in Gujarat in December.
The party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in Delhi that the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee had been asked to submit a report on the incident. Radadia is considered a strongman in the Saurashtra region.
Radadia, however, defended his action, saying that he was surrounded by about 15 people carrying sticks after he told the plaza manager that as an MP he was exempt from paying the toll.
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