mumbai

Updated: Sep 17, 2017 23:27 IST

A day after union tourism minister KJ Alphons remarked that car owners are not starving and can afford higher fuel prices; a criminal case has been registered against senior BJP leader Pasha Patel for abusing a journalist in Latur. The journalist had asked Patel for a comment on the rising fuel prices affecting common people.

Patel admitted that he abused him ‘only after being provoked’, and claimed that he wasn’t aware the person was a journalist.

Patel was recently appointed the first honorary chairman of the State Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. The commission was formed to recommend the minimum support price (MSP) to the government for each crop after carrying out a detailed study on input cost, crop pattern and production.

Vishnu Burge, a journalist from a Marathi news channel, asked Patel for a reaction on the rising fuel prices on Saturday. The BJP leader reportedly lost his temper and started abusing the journalist. The incident was captured in a video clip that has gone viral on social media.

The Latur police have registered a case against the BJP leader under section 294, 504 and 526 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In his complaint, Burge has said he was abused and threatened by the leader.

Patel, however, claimed that he was provoked by the journalist, which led him to lose his temper.

“Burge was not wearing his identity card; neither was he carrying a boom or camera. He provoked me while I was on my way to a press conference, by saying ‘you people have made the lives of farmers miserable’,” the BJP leader said, adding, “He didn’t ask me any question related to fuel prices.”

Patel is a senior BJP leader and former MLC, who had defected from the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2000.

A day earlier reacting to a similar question, Alphons had said, “Who buys petrol? Somebody who has a car or bike. Certainly he’s not starving. People who can afford to pay should pay,” he said.