A vegetable vendor in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi was taken into custody after a man deployed two bouncers on Sunday (09) at his shop, to prevent buyers from getting aggressive over high tomato prices.
The shopkeeper, Raj Narayan, has been arrested and Ajay Fauji, a Samajwadi Party (SP) worker who organised the dramatic protest, along with the two bouncers are on the run, the Hindustan Times reported.
A case has been registered by a cop against Fauji and other unnamed people at the Lanka police station in Varanasi, which is the parliamentary constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi.
According to the vendor, Fauji bought tomatoes worth ₹500 from somewhere and put them into a basket at his vegetable shop.
Fauji himself sat at the shop and started selling the tomatoes as a mark of protest.
A sign in Fauji’s store also referred to the rising cost of goods over the previous “nine years,” which is supposedly the length of time the Narendra Modi-led government has been in power at the Centre.
Fauji had the bouncers deployed at the shop from 9 am to 5 pm. He refused to reveal how much he hired them for.
The SP worker said that although customers are still showing up in the same numbers, they are no longer as adamant about the pricing.
Akhilesh Yadav, the SP chief shared the image of a news clip relating to Fauji and his bouncers, and tweeted, “The BJP should provide ‘Z-Plus’ security to tomatoes.”
