Gujarat AAP MLA, 20 Others Booked for Attacking Restaurant Owner Over Bill

Rajpipla: A case has been registered against an MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and 20 others for allegedly attacking a restaurant owner in Gujarat 's Narmada district, police said on Sunday.

Based on a complaint, the police on Saturday registered a first information report (FIR) against AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava, six identified and around 15 unidentified persons for the incident that occurred in Dediapada on September 16, an official said.

Chaitar Vasava, who won the 2022 Gujarat election from the Dediapada seat, and the other accused allegedly hurled verbal abuses and thrashed the complainant and restaurant owner Shantilal Vasava, the official said.

The FIR states that the legislator and others attacked the complainant on the night of September 16 after he was asked to settle a restaurant bill, he said.

The complainant alleged that he called Chaitar Vasava on his mobile phone and asked him to settle the bill. This angered the MLA, and he asked the latter to wait for him at his house, the official said.

He said the MLA allegedly reached the complainant's house along with a group of 20 people, slapped him and verbally abused him. The AAP leader's accomplices also thrashed him and threatened to kill him.

A case has been registered against the accused under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy. No arrests have been made so far, the official said.

Chaitar Vasava unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the Bharuch seat in a seat-sharing agreement with Congress .

The MLA was arrested in December last year for allegedly threatening a forest official, firing in the air and extorting money. He spent nearly six weeks in jail before a sessions court granted him regular bail. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)