Delhi road-inspection video shows apparent slap as minister and witnesses dispute what led to it
A dispute over road construction in west Delhi escalated on Sunday, September 27, 2026, when Public Works Department Minister Parvesh Verma appeared to strike a man who was filming an inspection. Video circulated by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders shows a brief physical confrontation, but the accounts of what preceded it sharply differ.
The incident occurred during an inspection of work on the Vikaspuri Ring Road, in an area represented by AAP legislator Jarnail Singh of Tilak Nagar. Singh and people accompanying him challenged the quality of the road surface. In footage from the inspection, Singh holds up pieces he says came away from the newly laid road while speaking with Verma. That demonstration shows what was in his hands; by itself, it does not establish the condition of the entire project, the cause of any defect or whether construction standards were breached.
What the circulating video shows
In the widely circulated footage of the confrontation, a man holding up a phone stands close to Verma. The minister appears to push or pull the phone downward, then swing his other hand toward the man’s face. The movement appears to be a slap. The man moves toward Verma afterward, and another person steps between them as people nearby react. The clip supports a description of the visible contact, not a definitive conclusion about why it happened.
The circulating clips do not provide a verified, continuous record of everything said and done before and after that moment. The man who was filming says he livestreamed the inspection on Singh’s Instagram account and that the entire conversation can be heard in that recording. A complete, unedited copy of that livestream has not been independently verified for this account. It would therefore be misleading to treat the short clip as proof either that Verma was verbally provoked or that no provocation occurred.
Conflicting accounts from those involved
Verma said in a video statement that a person accompanying Singh abused his family and that he reacted in anger. He also said what happened should not have happened. Verma maintains that the roadwork was proceeding well. Separately, he accused Singh of seeking a commission from a contractor and of damaging newly laid work before filming it. Those are the minister’s allegations, not findings established by the inspection footage.
The man seen with the phone, identified as Sahib Singh, 22, disputes Verma’s account. Sahib says he works with the MLA’s social media team, was recording or livestreaming the inspection at Singh’s direction and did not abuse the minister. He says he was showing concerns about the road surface when Verma struck him. Sahib has said he submitted a complaint to local police and sought action. His account of what he said before the contact cannot be settled from the short circulating clip alone.
Jarnail Singh says he showed Verma sections of road surface that could be lifted by hand and expected the minister to examine the work. He alleges that Verma instead struck his colleague as the inspection was being recorded. AAP leaders have called for action against the minister and described the roadwork as evidence of corruption. The footage does not establish corruption, and no independent quality assessment has been presented in the material reviewed for this account.
What remains unresolved
The visible hand movement and the disputed lead-up are separate questions. The available clips appear to show contact with Sahib’s face, while Verma’s statement offers an account of why he says he reacted. Sahib denies that account. Neither a participant’s statement nor a short excerpt can substitute for a continuous recording with intelligible audio from before the confrontation.
There are also differing descriptions of the police paperwork. Sahib says he approached police and submitted a complaint; some accounts describe a registered first information report, but a confirmed registration and its contents have not been established here. Verma has said a PWD engineer complained to police about the roadwork dispute. Neither side’s description should be treated as a police finding.
For now, the narrow conclusion supported by the circulating video is that the road inspection became a heated exchange and that Verma appears to lower a filming man’s phone and strike toward his face. Whether anyone abused the minister, why the road surface came away and what action police have formally taken require evidence beyond the clips and competing statements.
