Ludhiana: A brutal assault captured on CCTV has exposed a growing wave of violent tax evasion targeting highway workers.Five toll-tax evaders bashed up a night-shift employee, Harjit Singh, who had refused to let them bypass Ferozepur Road’s Chowkiman plaza early on Friday. The men wanted to use a free lane at 4am.When the employee requested local identity documents, the occupants claimed to be from nearby Mullanpur Dakha and asserted they bypassed the toll booth routinely without paying. The confrontation turned violent after Harjit Singh requested their identification card and tried to photograph the vehicle’s registration number plate.CCTV footage captured at 4.01am shows how the five men exited the vehicle and beati up Harjit Singh, continuing the assault even as an elderly bystander tried to intervene. The attackers then fled.Harjit Singh alerted toll management and confirmed he will lodge a formal police complaint. “We haven’t received official information about the incident yet, but we will look into it,” said inspector Kuljinder Singh, station house officer of Dakha.The assault is the latest in a series of violent attacks against toll collectors in the region, where motorists resort to weapons and physical force frequently to evade nominal transit fees.
