Hisar: BJP leader and Ticketock star Sonali Phogat was arrested on Wednesday for beating a government employee. Later a local court granted him bail. Police said Phogat was arrested on June 5 in Balsamand village on charges of beating Sultan Singh, secretary of Hisar Bazar Samiti. Police said the BJP leader was produced in the court which granted him bail. Phogat had contested the 2019 assembly elections from Adampur seat in Hisar but lost to senior Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi.
The alleged video of the BJP leader beating the officer with slippers in front of people went viral on social media. Singh later made a complaint against Phogat to the police. He denied making any objectionable remarks against the BJP leader and alleged that he beat him up in the misconception that he had opposed Phogat in the Assembly elections. After the incident, employees of the entire state market limited protested and demanded to arrest Phogat. Binain Khap, one of the reputed Khapas of the state, gave the state government a week’s time to arrest Phogat a few days ago.
Phogat had earlier told reporters in Hisar that she had gone to meet the officials of the market committee to explain some of the farmers’ problems. He alleged that when Singh was showing him a place in Balsamand in Hisar district where a shed was to be erected for farmers, he allegedly made lewd and derogatory remarks against him. The BJP leader claimed that the officer also made some comments against a woman officer of the market committee and a woman minister of Haryana.
Police have tried against Phogat under sections 147 (rioting) of the Indian Penal Code, 149 (illegal submission), 186 (banning public servant from doing official work), 332 (intentional injury to prevent public servant from doing duty ), 353 (assault) and 506 (threatening). The police had also registered a case against Singh on Phogat’s complaint. A case was registered against them under sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force to disobey a woman) and 509 (act with intent to break a woman’s modesty) of the Indian Penal Code.
