Have power, will abuse: Samajwadi Party supporters thrash toll booth employees in UP

After being criticised for the lavish birthday celebrations organised for party chief 75-year-old Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party has yet again sparked controversy as supporters of an SP MLA on Saturday beat up a toll booth employee in Barabanki district of UP. [caption id=“attachment_1816567” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Supporters of Gosainganj SP MLA Abhay Singh assaulted toll booth employees at the Ahmadpur toll booth for stopping Singh’s Scorpio car for entering the wrong lane, according to this IBNLive report. The incident took place at around 11 am on Friday. After his car was stopped, Singh’s supporters, who were travelling with him in his convoy, got into a heated argument with the personnel manning the toll booth. The entire incident was captured on CCTV camera installed at the toll booth. According to an NDTV report, Singh’s supporters were soon joined by men who arrived in three SUVs. “They beat up our toll plaza attendant and a guard… we have footage of the entire incident.. our attendant is severely injured,” toll booth employee Kuldeep Singh told NDTV. One of the victims also said that Abhay Singh did nothing to stop the incident and was sitting in his car the whole time. The 75th birthday bash of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who rode an imported Victorian-style ‘buggy’ on Friday, kicked up a controversy over its funding with party leader Azam Khan sarcastically saying that money had come from terror group Taliban and Dawood Ibrahim. “Why does it matter where the money for celebrations is coming from? Some have come from Taliban, some from Abu Salem, some from Dawood(Ibrahim), some from terrorists…,” he said. The two-day birthday celebrations starting on Friday were organised by the ruling party in Khan’s constituency in Rampur. Khan is the Chancellor of Jauhar university. The ‘buggy’ had been hired from London. A 75-feet-long cake was another highlight of Mulayam’s birthday bash. (With inputs from PTI)