India News | Cross FIRs Lodged After U'khand Minister Caught on Camera Beating Up Man

Rishikesh, May 3 (PTI) Police on Wednesday lodged cross FIRs after Uttarakhand minister Premchand Aggarwal was caught on camera dealing a flurry of blows on a man following an argument.

Aggarwal, his PRO Kaushal Bijlwan and security man Pankaj Rana were booked under sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (insulting someone intentionally to provoke) of the Indian Penal Code, Station House Officer of Rishikesh Kotwali police station K R Pandey said.

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Surendra Singh Negi, the man allegedly assaulted by the minister, and his companion Dharamveer Prajapati were also booked under sections 392 (robbery), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant), 353 (assaulting or using criminal force to deter public servant), 504 (insulting someone intentionally to provoke them) and 506 (issuing threat to cause death or grievous hurt ) of the IPC, police said.

A video went viral on Tuesday in which Cabinet minister Aggarwal, his gunner and others were seen beating and kicking a man and his companion after an argument.

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Aggarwal later defended the act, saying the man was beaten up after he abused and attacked him tearing his kurta and the uniform of his gunner.

The argument ensued after Negi and his accomplice's motorcycle allegedly hit the minister's car when it was caught in a traffic jam.

Pradesh Mahila Congress president Jyoti Gairola led a procession of slogan-shouting party workers and burnt an effigy of Aggarwal outside his house, demanding the minister's resignation for assaulting a common man.

Aggarwal, who is a BJP MLA from Rishikesh, is the Finance and Urban Development Minister in Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami's cabinet. He was formerly speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly.

After the incident on Tuesday, local residents had demonstrated at the Rishikesh Kotwali police station demanding action against the minister.

In a video Negi posted on Facebook, he had accused the minister and his staff of assaulting him without any provocation.

"I fail to understand why I was abused and assaulted by the minister and his men. We were caught in a traffic jam. I happened to drive past his car without knowing who was sitting inside it and he abused me. When I protested, he and his men got down from the car and hit me calling me names," Negi alleged in the video.

Aggarwal had described Negi as a "blackmailer masquerading as a social worker”.

The minister had told reporters that Negi had called him once about some problem with a road and he had reached there "within five minutes".

"He calls himself a social worker but is a blackmailer. Initially, I used to think he was an active worker," Aggarwal had alleged.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)