 "Representational image")
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Rakesh Rathore on Thursday denied he was the politician who beat up a toll plaza employee in Uttar Pradesh.
The Sitapur legislator said that he neither owns a Scorpio car as shown in a video which has gone viral nor has he been to New Delhi in the last six months.
"This is not me. The person shown in the video is Mahendra Yadav, a Samajwadi Party leader from Biswa. It is sad the media aired the video and the news without any verification," he said.
The video grab, reportedly two days old, shows a man alleged to be the BJP legislator engaging in a spat with the toll booth staff and then beating up an employee.
The politician then speeds away with the cavalcade of vehicles accompanying him without paying the toll. The politician and his henchmen are also shown vandalising the barrier.
The incident happened at the Fatehganj (West) toll plaza on the Moradabad-Bareilly highway.
A police official in Bareilly said since there were two versions of the incident, they will go through the CCTV footage before taking action.
