Jhansi: Days after visuals of a Vande Bharat Express passenger, bleeding from the nose after an alleged assault by BJP workers, started doing the rounds on social media, the party served a show-cause notice to Rajeev Singh Parichha, MLA of the Babina Constituency in Jhansi.
Reports suggest that those who roughed-up the passenger, identified as Raj Prakash, had come to receive Parichha at the Jhansi station. The violence was the fallout of a dispute between the MLA and Prakash over the exchange of a seat on the Bhopal-bound Vande Bharat Express.
The notice was issued by BJP’s Uttar Pradesh general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla. It stated that information about the MLA’s conduct and actions on the train had come to light through media and social media reports and that his behaviour has adversely impacted the party’s image. This amounts to indiscipline, the notice added.
Parichha will have to reply to this notice within seven days. If a timely and satisfactory response is not received, the party will be compelled to take the “strictest disciplinary action” against him, it has been mentioned.
The incident occurred on Thursday when the MLA was travelling to Jhansi with his wife and son by that train. While two seats allotted to Parichha were next to each other, the third one was in a different row.
The MLA apparently asked Prakash to exchange his seat with the one in another row. The passenger refused on the grounds that his seat was comfortable as it had more leg space. This led to an altercation between Parichha and Prakash, who was on his way to Bhopal.
Parichha seems to have informed his supporters of the incident. As soon as the train reached Jhansi, about 10-15 men entered the coach and assaulted Prakash, leaving him bleeding from the nose.
While the MLA lodged a police complaint, Prakash has not done so as yet. The police claimed that efforts to trace him in Bhopal were unsuccessful.
In his complaint, Parichha claimed that a dispute arose after Prakash and a co-passenger spread out their legs, hindering the movement of others. When he asked them to sit in a proper manner, the two allegedly misbehaved, the MLA said.
Parichha further alleged that the two passengers misbehaved with him again after suspecting that he had reported the matter to the railway authorities. He also claimed that when the train reached the Jhansi railway station, the two called their associates, who then misbehaved with the people who had come to receive him at the station.
The Government Railway Police (GRP) says that Prakash got off at Bhopal and met security personnel but left without registering a formal complaint. The CCTV footage from inside the compartment does reveal a commotion at Jhansi station, but an assault can’t be made out clearly.
