Youth hurls shoe at Hooda, detained for questioning

MAHENDERGARH - A 21-year-old youth, frustrated at the Haryana government’s delay in giving him a promised job, hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during a rally in this Haryana town Sunday, eyewitnesses said, but police denied the incident.

The shoe fell quite some distance away from Hooda.

The youth, who was identified as Shakti Singh, a resident of Baniani village here, was overpowered by villages and handed over to the police, who detained him for questioning.

Shakti, who was sitting behind the press photographers during the rally here at the ITI ground, suddenly threw a shoe towards Hooda but it fell short. The villagers sitting beside him immediately caught him and beat him up before handing him over to the police.

Hooda termed the incident the “handiwork of the anti-social elements on the behest of rival political parties in the state”.

However, Shakti said that he was frustrated as the state government had not fulfilled its promise of providing him a job.

“I had received a bullet injury during a police firing incident. At that time, the government had promised me cash relief of Rs.10 lakh and a government job. But despite my repeated reminders, none of the promises have been fulfilled so far,” he told reporters at the police station here.

However, district police chief Jagdish Nagar expressed ignorance over this incident.

“Nobody hurled shoe or anything towards the chief minister. Yes, two groups of youths had started fighting at the rally venue but we had immediately controlled the situation,” Nagar told IANS.

Mahendergarh is around 320 km from Chandigarh.