Bulandshahr (UP): Former MLA Bhagwan Sharma a.k.a. Guddu Pandit has been booked along with over a dozen others for violating lockdown norms.
The case was registered against the former legislator after a video went viral on the social media in which Guddu Pandit is seen cutting a cake placed on a car’s bonnet with a giant axe in the presence of scores of his supporters.
Former UP MLA Guddu Pandit cuts cake, placed on car bonnet, using a battle axe. Pandit (in olive Kurta) is seen surrounded by supporters flouting social distancing norms. Pandit has been booked several times for lockdown violation by Bulandshahar police. @Uppolice pic.twitter.com/DDH76wJwbo
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) June 7, 2020
A video was also streamed live from his Facebook account.
Sharma can be seen cutting a cake placed on the bonnet of a red SUV on the highway. He later puts ’tilak’ on a youth’s forehead and the cake is distributed among his supporters who raise slogans.
None of them is seen wearing a face mask.
Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Santosh Kumar confirmed that the video was shot in Noida on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway. He said that an FIR under relevant sections of the IPC for violation of lockdown orders has been registered at Dadri police station in Noida.
Meanwhile, Guddu Pandit, clarified, “My birthday is on July 10. I was returning to Bulandshahr from Noida as my mother-in-law had passed away. A group of youths were celebrating someone else’s birthday. When they spotted me, they came in front of my car. I couldn’t have run them over. They put the cake on the bonnet of my car and requested me to cut it.”
Sharma said that he also advised them not to celebrate on the highway and to adhere to the social distancing norms.
The former legislator has been booked at least five times in the last two months for flouting lockdown norms.
Last month, he was booked for “luring exhausted migrant labourers by offering them food and beverages” outside his home.
IANS