A shoe was thrown at senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya by a man dressed as a lawyer during a party event in Lucknow today.
The shoe missed Mr Maurya but party workers overpowered and thrashed the man who threw it. Videos of the incident show Samajwadi Party workers roughing up the man in the presence of police personnel. The accused, identified as Akash Saini, was then taken to a hospital where he is currently under treatment.
"The accused has been taken to a hospital and further details will be known after questioning him," Assistant Commissioner of Police (Lucknow) Aniandy Vikram Singh said as quoted by news agency PTI.
The incident happened at the Samajwadi Party's convention at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, where party president Akhilesh Yadav was scheduled to speak.
"When the person who threw ink in Ghosi himself told that this work was done by BJP people, then what more to say now," Mr Yadav wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr Maurya, a prominent OBC leader in Uttar Pradesh, switched from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Samajwadi Party just before the 2022 state assembly elections.
The 69-year-old was recently at the centre of a controversy over his remarks on the Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas. Maurya claimed that some parts of the Ramcharitmanas are derogatory to a large segment of society based on caste and should be prohibited, drawing harsh criticism from all sides.
"Living Wall Memorial'': UP Man Tattoos Names Of 631 Soldiers On His Body Man Held For Rape Attempt In UP, BJP Claims He's Linked To Samajwadi Party "Brazen, Strongly Disapprove": Supreme Court On UP Delaying Convicts' Applications 150 mg Semen In Kolkata Doctor's Body, Suspect Gang-Rape: Parents To Court 2 French Rafale Jets Collide Mid-Air, Instructor, Pilot Missing "Attempt To Save Accused Instead Of...": Rahul Gandhi On Doctor Rape-Murder G20 Nations Couldn't Do, India Did, Met Paris Accord Target Before Time: PM "Targeted Violence Against Hindus...": Vivek Ramaswamy On Bangladesh Unrest Probe Reveals Brazil Plane Crashed One Minute After Pilots Sensed Trouble Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.