Union Minister apologises after staff thrashes watchman

Ghaziabad/New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Friday apologised for the threashing his personal staff gave to a society watchman in Ghaziabad where he had gone to visit his sister on Raksha Bandhan.

The minister said he has also suspended the Personal Security Officer in question.

A video grab of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, showed Sharma's security officer thrashing the watchman of Ashiana Greens in Ghaziabad.

Sharma was visiting his sister on Raksha Bandhan occasion and was stopped at the society gate by the watchman. This did not go well with Sharma's personal security staff.

Sharma later apologised, and said he has suspended his security man.

"I never tried to justify the incident. As soon as I got to know of the incident, without trying to find out who is at fault, I suspended my security guard and asked police to take action," Sharma said.

"I do not even know the reason for the scuffle, it is police's job to find that out and take action," he added.

The watchman, Ajay Yadav, said Sharma's staff started beating him without any reason.

According to police, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, the Union Minister reached Asiana Greens in Indirapuram where his sister lives in Flat number GF-74.

At the entrance of the society gate, the security watchman on duty asked the escort cars to stop and enquired from the PSO in which flat they wanted to go. Enraged at the question, the PSO of the minister started beating him.

"We had no prior information of the minister's arrival in our society. It is the duty of the security guard to record the entry of each guest in the register book, and he was enquiring about the details. But the PSO of the minister started beating him. So, we filed a complaint with the Indirapuram police station," Pankaj Kumar, secretary of the Residents Welfare Association at Ashiana Greens, said.

"But today (Friday) the minister phoned us and told us that he did not know about the incident. After he learnt of it, he suspended his PSO. The minister apologised for the happening. So I have withdrawn the complaint," added Kumar.

Senior Superintendent of Police K.S. Emmanuel said: "We received the complaint. It was yet to be recorded, but the complainant withdrew the complaint. So that issue is resolved outside the police station."