New Delhi: A day after a man was allegedly slapped by Parvesh Verma, the Delhi Police has filed a non-cognisable report (NCR) against the minister, sources said, adding that a separate case was also lodged against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Jarnail Singh.
A senior police officer said that NCR was lodged against Verma, the Public Works Department (PWD) Minister, for allegedly slapping a 22-year-old man during a road inspection in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar.
The case against Jarnail Singh is over “allegedly obstructing a PWD assistant engineer and other public servants in the discharge of their duty,” the officer said.
Verma landed in a controversy on Sunday as he purportedly slapped the man, who claims to work in the social media team of Jarnail Singh, during a road inspection exercise in Tilak Nagar when the person tried to record a video.
The Delhi minister is seen in a video surrounded by people when he is seen to pull away the man’s mobile phone with his left hand before allegedly slapping him on the face.
The case against Singh was registered on the complaint of the PWD assistant engineer, while the NCR against Verma was filed on a complaint by the complainant, Sahib Singh, under Section 115 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
In a statement, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hareshwar Swami, said action under relevant sections of law had been taken on the complaints of Singh and the PWD assistant engineer. “Some other complaints have also been received regarding the incident which will be taken up during the course of investigation.”
Verma later released a video statement on social media, accusing AAP workers of abusing his family during the road inspection exercise. “Jarnail Singh arrived with his workers who had been informed in advance, and he immediately began behaving rudely. One of his workers started hurling abuses at my family,” he claimed.
Later, he shared another video. “My sole purpose is to carry out development work, and if anyone obstructs that, I will not tolerate it,” he claimed.
AAP MLA Jarnail Singh condemned Verma’s conduct. “This is the BJP government’s PWD Minister from Delhi, the capital of India,” he said in a post on X. “He had come to inspect the road, but upon seeing scam after scam being exposed, he lost his cool and ended up indulging in thuggery with my colleague who was recording the video.”
Jarnail Singh told ThePrint that Verma called him to check the condition of roads. The MLA said he believed the minister would inspect the road, check the quality, and “perhaps take action against the PWD officials” for the “poor” quality of work.
“When he asked me to point out where the road was breaking down, I showed him how the entire road surface was peeling off like a carpet; instead of taking action, he pulled the mobile phone, slapped the person who was recording the incident and fled the scene,” Singh alleged.
Sahib, the victim, manages the social media handles of the AAP MLA.
“We came here after the PWD called us to inspect the condition of this road. I showed him how the road surface was breaking apart. When this was pointed out, the minister couldn’t handle it. He raised his hand against me. There were police personnel right there, and all of this happened in their presence,” he said, demanding an apology from the minister.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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