File photo of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal
The Gujarat police has lodged two separate complaints against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal's convoy in connection with alleged non-payment of toll tax. Mr Kejriwal visited Gujarat for four days last week for what he called an audit of Chief Minister Narendra Mr Modi's governance in the state.
The first complaint is lodged in the Patan district by a toll booth employee Mukesh Gadhvi who has alleged that an AAP convoy of around 20 cars and other vehicles passed through without paying any toll.
"While heading towards Kutch from Radhanpur on March 5, it is alleged that none of the cars in the AAP convoy paid tax at Varahi toll plaza," said N J Jadeja, sub-inspector at Varahi police station.
"We booked a case under IPC 188 last night for not adhering to notification about toll tax. However, no specific names were mentioned in the FIR. We are now taking statements and checking CCTV footages of toll booth to identify the drivers of these cars," Mr Jadeja added.
The second complaint was lodged on Thursday night at Samkhiali police station in Kutch district by Dipendrasinh Tomar, security in-charge of Samkhilai toll plaza.
Mr Tomar too has said that an AAP convoy of around 15 cars passed through the toll plaza at 4:30 pm on March 6 without paying tax.
"We have taken Tomar's complaint and booked a case against drivers of AAP convoy for not following the notification of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)" said the police.
Mr Kejriwal had travelled to Patan and Kutch districts during his Gujarat visit on March 5 and 6.
The AAP leader had said he had come to Gujarat to 'inspect' the development claims made by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier, Gujarat finance minister and government spokesperson Nitin Patel had alleged that "Kejriwal and other state leaders of AAP had skipped toll tax payment at three places, while moving with his entire cavalcade."
"He did not pay the toll at Varahi toll booth in Patan district and Surajbari and Samakhiyali in Kutch district," Patel had alleged.
Former Gujarat MLA from BJP, Kanubhai Kalsariya, was also travelling with him. They did not stop their car even when the toll-booth employee asked them to do so, he claimed.