DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prem Chand Agarwal and his aides including the gunner Vinod Rana were booked on Wednesday for allegedly beating up a man in a road-rage case in Rishikesh, police said.
The minister, his gunner, and a few others were seen beating up a man in a video that has gone viral.
In the video, Agarwal could be seen standing near his vehicle on the roadside and talking to a resident of Shivaji Nagar, Surendra Singh Negi. Suddenly, the minister could be seen slapping the resident. The minister's gunner Vinod Rana and a few others soon joined in beating up the man.
Taking serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami summoned the minister and ordered the DGP to conduct a fair and transparent inquiry.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Dalip Singh Kanwar told The New Indian Express, "Two persons named Surendra Singh Negi and Dhirendra Singh Prajapati have been named as accused on a complaint lodged by the minister's gunner." Similarly, the minister and a few others have been named as accused on a complaint lodged by Surendra Singh Negi.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress party workers took to the streets terming the incident as a "direct attack of power on the common man". The Congress workers staged protests across the state and burnt effigies of the finance minister, raising slogans against him.
BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt strongly condemned the incident involving the cabinet minister Premchand Agarwal. He also expected public representatives to "behave in a restrained manner" in public places.
Congress state spokesperson Garima Dasauni also slammed Agarwal over the incident, saying, "Those who are responsible for law and order in the state, when they are violating the law by beating common people, how will there be rule of law in the state".