Noida police books AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, his son for assaulting fuel station worker

Police said the incident was triggered by a man claiming to be Khan’s son, who jumped the queue at the fuel station and demanded that his car be serviced first. When he was told to get back in line, he began assaulting the staff, stated the FIR.

The Noida police on Tuesday booked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Amanatullah Khan and his son for allegedly assaulting and threatening the staff at a fuel station, officers aware of the case said.

While one video that surfaced on social media showed the alleged assault, a second video showed an older man deep in conversation with some people inside an office at the fuel station, with two policemen also present. According to police, the older man seen in the video is MLA Khan (above). (PTI)

The police filed a case based on a complaint filed by Vinod Kumar Singh, the owner of the Shaheed Ramendra Pratap Singh Filling Station in Noida Sector 95, who alleged that the incident was triggered by a man claiming to be Khan’s son, who jumped the queue at the fuel station and demanded that his car be serviced first. When the man was told to get back in line, Singh said in his complaint, the man began assaulting his staff.

“At around 9.27 am, a man claiming to be MLA Amanatullah Khan’s son came to the station in a Brezza car bearing Delhi registration plates and skipped the queue of cars waiting for petrol. He went directly to the pump operator, asking him to move the first car forward and fill his vehicle first,” states the complaint.

According to the complaint, the staffer asked the man to get back in line, at which point the man began to assault him. When Singh and other staffers intervened in the fight, the man called Khan, who “abused the manager and threatened to beat him”, alleged the complainant.

Purported CCTV footage of the incident, which emerged on social media, showed a man having an argument with a staffer at the fuel station. The man then rushed to the boot of the car, took out a stick or a rod, and then began assaulting the staffer. Two other people sitting in the car then joined in the assault, the video shows.

HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

A second video showed an older man deep in conversation with some people inside an office at the same fuel station, with two policemen also present. According to police, the older man seen in the video is Khan.

“The man in the second video is identified as the MLA, but we are yet to identify his son,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (Noida) Manish Mishra.

On the basis of Singh’s complaint, a first information report was filed at the Phase 1 police station against Khan, his son, and two others under Indian Penal Code sections sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees).

Khan and the AAP did not comment on the matter, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the MLA of “hooliganism”.

“The video of assault and hooliganism by the son of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan at a petrol pump has left the citizens of Delhi and Noida stunned… Amanatullah Khan is himself known for such bullying tactics and his son has simply followed his behaviour,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said.