Villagers surrounding the private toll plaza near Hosakote on National Highway 4, went on a riot – stoned 11 toll collection booths and set fire to one of them – after a local was allegedly beaten up by toll plaza employees. The incident occurred on Sunday noon.
Bengaluru Rural police rushed to the spot and resorted to light caning to control the situation and disperse the crowd. All employees of the toll plaza have also fled from the spot.
Manjunath (20), a resident of Huskur Gate just 200 metres from the toll plaza, was on his way to Sulibele with his family. The family had a local pass to use the toll plaza everyday. However, the family had not been carrying their free pass and were asked to pay up by the toll gate employees, which led to a bitter tiff between Manjunath, his father Narayana Swamy and the toll employees.
Sources say that Manjunath slapped one of the toll employees for using unparliamentary language during the tiff, which created another fracas as the two sides came to fisticuffs.
Police sources said that a group of toll plaza employees enraged that one of them was slapped, dragged Manjunath into one of the booths and assaulted him with a wooden plank. A profusely bleeding Manjunath suffered severe injury on his arms and is now being treated at Manipal Hospital in the city.
