Staff Members at Raha Toll Gate Assault Passengers Over Money Receipt, 4 Held

Controversial Raha toll gate yet again grabbed the headlines after staff members of the plaza physically assaulted three members of a family from Hojai district at around 11.50 pm on Tuesday night, said the police.

The family hailing from Nilbagan locality in Hojai was coming from Guwahati was stopped by the staff at the toll plaza for toll fee.

The three persons then asked for a receipt for their toll payment, after which an altercation broke out between the two parties.

The victims identified as Maulana Farooq Ahmed, Mustafa Ahmed and Raihan Ahmed are currently undergoing treatment at the Nagaon civil hospital, a police official informed.

Speaking to the media, the police official said, “An incident was reported yesterday at around 11.50 pm. A family from Hojai was physically assaulted by the staffs of the toll plaza. Upon learning about the incident, a team of Nagaon police immediately rushed to the spot. We have the CCTV footages where we found three persons who were directly involved in the incident, all of them have been apprehended. Further legal actions are being taken against them.”

Meanwhile, the police has arrested a total of four persons in connection to the incident.

The arrested persons were identified as Sankar Kumar, Bipul Bordoloi, Jayanta Gogoi and Binoy Nath.

Earlier, responding to the incident, DGP Assam Police, GP Singh took cognizance of the incident of assault and directed Nagaon Police to take lawful action against the perpetrators.

“Reference incident of assault at Raha toll gate - SP @nagaonpolice has been instructed to take lawful action. @assampolice”, tweeted GP Singh.

Interestingly, since its launch, Raha Toll Plaza has been the center of attention for many reasons, including hooligan behavior by the staffs.

The Raha toll gate was started by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the year 2015; however, due to widespread protest by several indigenous organizations, the toll gate was kept close for years.

The NHAI had to shut down the toll plaza again in the year 2018, following protests by several organisations of the State including the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP).

Later, in the year 2020, the NHAI had decided to reopen the five toll plazas of the State from the first week of January in a phased manner.

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