Samajwadi hooligans bash up toll plaza staff

Ruling Samajwadi Party leaders and their supporters allegedly assaulted staff at two toll plazas and brandished their weapons when they were asked to buy tokens, just days after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav warned his partymen that hooliganism won't be tolerated.

Ajitmal Block pramukh Devendra Yadav and his gunner allegedly beat up the employees of Mohari toll plaza in Auraiya last night when they were asked to pay the tax, sources said.

They also did not spare the officials who rushed to mediate and beat them up, they said.

An FIR was filed by the victims at Ajitmal Kotwali later against unknown persons, the sources said. Police said that efforts were on to trace the culprits and action would be taken against them as per the law.

In the second incident, a local SP leader along with his aides were caught on camera assaulting toll plaza staff on Lucknow-Faizabad highway when they were asked to pay the fee.

"Pappau Yadav and three persons were going from Faizabad to Lucknow. At Raunahi toll plaza, they had a fight with the staff in which one person on duty got hurt. We have filed a case and the culprits will face action," Piyush Ranjan Srivastav, Superintendent of Police (Rural), said.

The toll plaza personnel, including a guard who suffered a fracture in his hand in the attack, alleged that the SP workers refused to take tokens and threatened them with guns before assaulting them.

CCTV footage showed SP workers attacking the toll booth manager inside his cabin.

"They came with pistols. When we stopped the car for token, they started abusing us and threatened the security personnel too," said Kranti Kumar Singh, the toll plaza manager.

Security Guard Hakim Singh said, "The car stopped and they brandished their guns. When we asked them to take tokens, they refused and started beating me. When I tried to escape, they followed me. They attacked me and I have suffered a fracture in my hand and other injuries."

Sources claimed that it was routine for the ruling party men not to pay the toll tax.

On December 23, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had in Lucknow warned partymen that they should shun hooliganism or else they will be sacked from the party.