NDTV Questions BJP Leader After 'VIP Brat' Thrashes Karnataka Toll Booth Worker

The manager of a highway toll booth in Karnataka where a boom operator was assaulted by the son of a BJP leader told NDTV they have not filed a case against the "brat" as they have left the matter for the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to decide.

NDTV also grilled the BJP leader, Vijugouda Patil, a day after he defended his son Samarthgouda Patil's assault on the toll booth employee.

NDTV asked some hard questions: was his son who drove an SUV really unable to afford the Rs 50 toll fee? What's the BJP leader's declared assets?

"You listen to me. You don't talk like this," the BJP leader told NDTV on phone.

Vijugouda Patil has been contesting from Baleshwar constituency since 2008; however, he hasn't been able to win the seat, currently held by Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil.

The toll booth manager Tippu Aland told NDTV there is little they can do as "they are big people".

"The boom operator is a new employee. He didn't know about Vijugouda. He asked for payment since the vehicle did not have FASTag," Aland said. "That's when he [Samarthgouda] said, 'Do you know who my father is?' Since the employee was new and unaware, he simply did his job of asking for the toll fee."

"That's how the argument escalated. What he [BJP leader's son] did was wrong, but we can't help it as they are all big people. We can't do anything about it. We have not filed a case because we have left it to NHAI to take action," the toll booth manager said.

FASTag is mandatory across the country for paying toll fees.

The assault by the BJP leader's son on the toll booth worker yesterday was captured on CCTV. Other staff members at the toll booth intervened and stopped the attack. The injured employee was admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

Samarthgouda is on the run, though no case has been filed against him. Many on social media have called for his arrest.

A few hours after the CCTV grab went viral, Vijugouda Patil publicly defended his son's action amid severe criticism on social media over the brazenness of "VIP culture".

"My son told them [toll booth staff] this is Vijugouda's car and I am his father. The toll staff asked him who Vijugoud was. My son then asked whether they couldn't recognise someone who comes there regularly. The man then spoke rudely and said, 'Whoever it is, you must pay the toll fee'," the BJP leader said.

"My son got irritated. It's only natural for a son to get angry when someone speaks ill of his father. But instead of resolving the issue calmly, the staff told him to pay the toll and spoke in a loud manner. So my son got down, and the people with him questioned the tone of the staff. What's wrong in what he did? The toll staff were the ones who were in the wrong," Vijayagouda Patil said.

Toll booth employees getting thrashed by people, especially the VIP crowd, over asking to pay the fee is something that's commonly reported from many parts of the country. Social media is a storehouse of CCTV grabs that show all kinds of characters, buoyed by political influence, attacking toll booth staff - from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the north to Karnataka down south.

Congress leader and Karnataka minister Dinesh Gundu Rao told NDTV the kind of behaviour shown by both the father and the son "shows their upbringing". "This was a blatant misuse of power," he said.

BJP's Chalavadi Narayanaswamy also condemned the actions of his party leader's son.

"Whoever it is, Congress, BJP, Janata Dal, this is totally illegal and it should not happen. His father has apologised for his son's mistake. Even then I condemn the incident. Whatever he committed, his father did not do it, but it will bring a bad name to his father," Narayanaswamy said.