SURAT: A man was arrested in Surat city of Gujarat on Friday for allegedly beating up a migrant from Jharkhand over booking of train tickets.
While opposition Congress claimed that accused Rajesh Verma is a BJP worker, the ruling party denied it.
A video of the incident which took place outside the accused’s office went viral on social media.
“Rajesh Verma hit me the most, my brain is not working properly from the pain. I have proof that we gave him the money. We all have tokens [for the train ticket], but he refuses to give us tickets,” the bleeding man said.
Shocking video from Surat, Gujarat.
BJP worker Rajesh Verma asked 100 migrant workers from Jharkhand to pay for their train tickets in advance. They were charged 3x the original price.
When a migrant worker went to his house to protest, he was beaten & hit with wooden plank. pic.twitter.com/fXj5o5ojnu
— Saral Patel (@SaralPatel) May 8, 2020
“Vasudev Verma, who hails from Jharkhand, had given money to Rajesh to buy train tickets for his native state,” said assistant commissioner of police A M Parmar.
“Rajesh beat up Vasudev after he went to the collect the tickets on Thursday and they had a heated argument. We have arrested Rajesh,” the ACP said.
The Congress alleged that Rajesh was a BJP worker and fleecing helpless migrant workers who wanted to go home by Shramik Special trains.
But the BJP said he had nothing to do with the party.
“Rajesh Verma is not a BJP worker. The party has not asked any of its workers to book tickets. The party has nothing to do with this,” said Surat BJP president Nitin Bhajiawala.