New Delhi: In what might spell trouble for BJP in poll-bound Delhi, party's SDMC councillor was on Wednesday caught on camera purportedly slapping a junior engineer, who was trying to ‘stop an unauthorised construction’.
The footage shows South Delhi Municipal Corporation councillor Neeraj Gupta of Ward No 188 hitting the junior engineer, surrounded by people, in Sangam Vihar East area in south Delhi where he had gone to stop an unauthorised construction. The video soon went viral.
"The junior engineer (JE) had gone to Sangam Vihar East to stop an unauthorised construction. Soon crowd gathered and chaos followed. Later, as the video shows, a tiff occurred between Gupta and the engineer, and the councillor then slapped the JE," a senior official of the SDMC said.
"The corporation has taken cognisance of the reported incident. And, the DC (Deputy Commissioner) will send a report to the Municipal Commissioner on this, following which an inquiry would be taken up, the outcome of which would decide the nature of action, whether to file an FIR or take some other action," the official said.
WATCH: BJP Councillor Neeraj Gupta slapped a MCD Junior Engineer who had come to put a stop to unauthorised construction
So far no action has been taken by BJP in this regard. Party spokesperson Nalin Kohli said, "I am not aware of the specifics of the incident nor have any details. But as a principle, no person, especially a public figure, should slap anybody or abuse anybody. We have to function as a law-abiding citizens. And, if it (the incident) has occurred, the state unit (of BJP) will take note of it, Kohli said.
Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, himself a councillor from Malviya Nagar in south Delhi, was unavailable for comment immediately. The incident comes at a time when Delhi is set to go to the polls on February 7 and is likely to provide ammunition to rivals AAP and Congress to attack BJP.
