New Delhi, Sep 28 (IANS) : Amid the controversy over the Tilak Nagar road dispute and slapping incident involving Delhi Minister Parvesh Verma, AAP MLA Jarnail Singh on Monday recounted his version of events and questioned how a person holding a ministerial post could behave in such a manner.
Speaking to IANS, Singh said he had been posting videos for the past four days highlighting the alleged poor quality of the road, claiming that construction norms had not been followed.
“For the past four days, I was posting videos related to the quality of this road because norms were not followed in constructing it. They just poured bitumen and left, as if no one was there to inspect it. When I inspected the road after it was built, the surface was literally peeling off by hand,” he said.
Singh said he had posted videos of the road and also tagged Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, claiming that the videos received a significant number of views.
“The videos went quite viral, and you’ll be surprised to know that my videos were taken down by the BJP’s IT cell,” he said.
“After getting millions of views, the videos were no longer on my Instagram. Then yesterday, on Sunday, at around 1:15 p.m., I received a call from Parvesh Verma. He said, ‘I have come to inspect the road here, so come over and show me where the fault in the road is.’ I reached there within a few minutes,” Singh said.
He said that several BJP workers were present at the spot and were recording the proceedings.
“When I arrived, their entire propaganda was already set up there. There were many BJP workers present with him; everyone had their phones in their hands, cameras recording and live streams running,” he said.
According to Singh, Verma asked him to point out the damaged portion of the road and accused him of misleading people and defaming the government.
“So right then and there, I picked up a piece of the road surface and pulled it off to show him. As soon as I pulled off the road surface and showed it to the Minister, all the BJP cameras were suddenly turned off,” he alleged.
Singh further alleged that Verma lost his temper and that his colleague Sahib Singh, who was recording the incident, was slapped, had his phone thrown down and was kicked and threatened with dire consequences.
“How can a person holding a ministerial post be so insensitive and impatient to behave like this? The whole incident was recorded, and the entire world saw it,” he said.
Singh said he would release a video covering the entire incident and challenged the authorities to take action if he had made any remarks against Verma’s family.
“If even a single word came out of my mouth about his family, or was even discussed, then the police should take whatever legal action applies against me,” he said.
He added that if it was established that Verma had assaulted someone or issued death threats, appropriate action should also be taken against him.
“And if it is proven that Parvesh Verma indulged in hooliganism, slapped someone, and gave death threats, then action should be taken against him—that is my simple point,” he said.
