Mahendragarh, August 22
A shoe was flung at Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the ITI ground here while he was addressing a “Samman Rally” organised by local MLA Rao Dan Singh today.

Hooda seemed pleased at the large turnout and began his speech. Suddenly four youths rose from among the audience and one of them hurled a shoe at him.

The shoe fell into the ‘D’ space and the Chief Minister went untouched. Simultaneously, a few women from the audience began to wave black flags. But a poised Hooda continued with his speech.

The police at the venue was quick to nab the youths. The incident created a commotion but MLA Rao Dan Singh appealed to the audience to remain seated.

“I feel sorry... those who do not wish to see development in this area are behind this incident,” he alleged.

It is reported that Rajputs looking for justice in the Nanva land dispute case and the Pathera rape case were behind the protest. Earlier, at a meeting in Pali village in the district, they had decided to show black flags to the Chief Minister during his visit. Hence, there was heavy bandobast at the public rally today. The Rajputs are angry at police “inaction” in a rape case.

Meanwhile, the SP, Jagdish Nagar, said there had been a “scuffle between two parties” and the role of the police was limited to placating the two groups. No case had been registered because “you can’t go about registering a case while the Chief Minister’s programme is on,” he maintained. Asked if this meant that no shoe was flung at the CM, he retracted from his earlier statement and disconnected the phone.