Ban Toll Plaza scuffle: Vehicles, cabins damaged, 6 injured in stone pelting

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: Panic gripped at Ban Toll Plaza area of Nagrota area, after a taxi driver and his relatives got engaged in a scuffle with employees of toll plaza. A private taxi and structure of plaza got damaged in stone pelting while six persons received injuries during the incident. The incident took place when driver of a Taxi, which was on its way to Jammu, entered into heated arguments with toll plaza employees after which the situation turned ugly. The taxi driver informed that on Saturday morning, he was on way to Jammu when at Ban Toll Plaza, deduction from his Fast-tag was made but plaza officials didn’t allow him to proceed further. “I asked toll plaza officials to allow me to move further but they were reluctant and started abusing me,” the taxi driver said. “As I objected to abusive words from toll plaza employees, they started to beat me with sticks, leaving me injured and also damaged my vehicle,” he added.
The Ban Toll plaza employees, however, said that soon after taxi driver was asked to stop at plaza and pay toll, he started abusing employees, which caused heated exchange of words, thereby leading to scuffle. “Taxi driver later called some more boys from the area, who ransacked toll plaza structure and created panic,” said employees.
The injured were shifted to hospital and two of them who were referred to GMC Hospital. They were identified as Gagandeep, resident of Gurdaspur and Kanwar SIngh, resident of Channi Himmat. The brother of taxi driver, identified as Mohd Abbas, resident of Dansal, also got injured in scuffle. Meanwhile, police has taken cognizance of the matter.
Pertinent to mention here that around half a dozen incidents of scuffle, clashes were reported from toll plazas across Jammu region including those at Thandi Khui, Lakhanpur and Ban Nagrota, with people complaining over-charging and violation of norms.