[VIDEO] Denied VIP lane, hooligans thrash toll plaza employee, run him over with their car

Lucknow: Yet another instance of mindless violence at a toll plaza has come to light. This time, from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh where a group of men assaulted and even tried to kill a toll plaza employee. The matter came to light after CCTV footage of the incident uploaded on social media went viral on Friday.

In the video, a group of men is seen mercilessly thrashing two toll plaza employees. One of them, driving a red-coloured Renault KWID, then runs over the toll plaza employee before all of the others step back into the car and flee the scene of the crime. Bareilly police are yet to issue a statement in this regard or confirm whether a case has been registered against the goons who perpetrated the violence.

Going by inputs, the assailants wanted to use the VIP lane. When the toll plaza employee turned them down and asked them to pay the toll, the assailants stepped out of the vehicle and began an all-out assault on the employees. Reports suggest that one of the assailants is local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ankit Bhartiya, however, the same is yet to be confirmed. The local leader is also yet to issue a statement clarifying his stance on the allegations of him assaulting toll plaza employees. More details are awaited as this is a developing story. 

Instances of attacks on toll plaza employees are not uncommon. On November 1, employees of a toll plaza on the Bhopal-Sehore Highway in Madhya Pradesh were thrashed by a group of men who also vandalised the toll plaza. The violence was caught on CCTV cameras and videos of the same made their way to social media platforms where they were widely shared.

Similarly, another incident was reported in September when a group of men attacked employees of a toll plaza in Rajasthan's Jodhpur district. Reports at the time suggested that the assailants lost their cool after toll plaza employees asked them to produce an Aadhaar card. A complaint was lodged in this regard and an investigation ordered by local law enforcement.

Another incident reported from Haryana in the same month revealed how a guard employed with a toll plaza in Haryana's Bahadurgarh was bludgeoned by a man. In a video of the incident, the man can be seen losing control of his senses and attacking the guard with an iron object after the latter refused to let him pass without paying the toll.