Sidhu creates quite as scene at toll plaza

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Sidhu creates quite as scene at toll plaza

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Former cricketer and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhus visit to Nellore began on sour note.

07 December,2011 09:26 pm

Reports say that he abducted a security guard who tried to stop his speeding vehicle flew thick and fast in the district, leading to a huge traffic snarl on NH-5 at Sullurpet toll plaza in the afternoon.Vehicles were stranded for a long distance for over two hours.Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu himself had to escort Sidhu safely out of the district. However, it later turned out to be a case of misunderstanding.The BJP MP set out from Chennai to attend a function of Swarna Bharati Trust, run by Naidu’s daughter.As the vehicle reached Sullurpet toll plaza on the outskirts on the borders of the district, the driver informed a guard standing on the right about the VIP passenger. The guard gave his signal to move.However, another person on the guard on the left side did not notice it and thought that the vehicle was trying to move through the VIP gate without stopping for inspection.When the vehicle did not stop, not knowing that another guard was trying to stop, the guard, Chench Ramaiah, allegedly threw a rod at the vehicle, breaking a rear side window pan. Angered by this, the driver got down and forcible moved the guard into the vehicle and drove on.The personnel at the toll plaza were petrified that an abduction had taken place and they also set out in another vehicle, following Sidhu’s car – an Innova bearing the registration number TN22BH1119.After reaching the function venue, Sidhu asked his gun men to leave him at the police outstation.He, then, went to attend the function. The gunmen kept the guard with themselves and informed the police in the evening.They said though another guard allowed them to cross the toll plaza through the VIP way, Chenchu Ramaiah threw the rod at the vehicle, damaging it.Meanwhile, as neither the officials nor the toll plaza organisers succeeded in securing Chenchu Ramaiahs release, his relatives and the people of his native village Manavali rushed to the plaza and held a sit-in on the busy highway.In no time, the traffic came to a grinding halt and the vehicles were not allowed to move by the protesters for over two hours. An utter chaos and a state of commotion prevailed in the area for up to 2 km on either way of the road, with the passengers not knowing what was happening.As news spread that Sidhu would returning to Chennai through the toll plaza in the evening, more villagers joined the protesters to block the MP’s vehicle.On learning about the angry protests, Venkaiah Naidu himself accompanied Sidhu and the police let them through the toll plaza in a dramatic manner, informing the protesters that a minister was passing by.Even as the villagers realised that they had been misled, the toll plaza personnel who went to secure Chenchu Ramaiah’s release returned to the place along with him. This assuaged the frayed tempers of the protesters. Ramaiah said that the vehicle did not bear any official sign and as it did not stop, he hurled the rod at it in a bid to stop.It is learnt that Venkaiah Naidu called up Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and took up the matter with him on the ‘lax’ behaviour of the toll plaza towards the VIPs.