Delhi road-inspection video sparks dispute over why Parvesh Verma struck man
A video from a road inspection in west Delhi has put Public Works Department Minister Parvesh Verma at the centre of a political dispute. The clip shows him lowering a man’s phone before appearing to slap him. What led to that moment is contested: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders say the minister became angry when they questioned the quality of newly laid roadwork, while Verma says he reacted after people accompanying them abused his family.
The confrontation took place on Sunday, September 27, during an inspection of roadwork in the Vikaspuri area. Tilak Nagar MLA Jarnail Singh was at the site with people from his AAP team. One of them, Sahib Singh, was recording the exchange. Footage circulated by AAP leaders shows a tense discussion near the road, followed by Verma moving the phone and making the apparent striking motion. People nearby then confront the minister.
The visible moment has drawn widespread attention. It does not, by itself, settle what was said beforehand or establish the condition of the road. Those questions sit at the centre of the competing accounts.
Two accounts of the confrontation
Jarnail Singh says he had raised concerns about the construction before the inspection. According to the MLA, he was able to pull a section of the road surface away by hand while questioning the work, and Verma became angry. Singh says the man with the phone was part of his team and was documenting the visit, not provoking the minister. He denies that he or his colleagues abused Verma’s family.
Sahib Singh also denies using abusive language. He says he was livestreaming the inspection at the MLA’s direction. His account directly challenges Verma’s explanation, but the competing statements and clips made public have not resolved the dispute over the words exchanged at the site. Nor does the footage alone amount to an independent assessment of whether the roadwork met construction standards.
Verma gives a different account of the visit. He says he went to inspect the work and invited Jarnail Singh to attend. According to Verma, people who arrived with the MLA spoke disrespectfully and abused his family, prompting his reaction in anger. He has said that what happened should not have happened, while arguing that the circulated video leaves out the full context. The allegation of abuse remains disputed.
Political and police fallout
AAP leaders have demanded action against Verma. Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s national convenor, accused the minister of striking a man who was helping expose problems with the road and called for his arrest. That allegation about the road is AAP’s claim, not an established finding about the project. The party has used the clip to question both the minister’s conduct and the government’s oversight of public works.
Sahib Singh has submitted a complaint to police seeking action over the encounter. Complaints connected to the confrontation have also been made against Jarnail Singh; the MLA rejects the accusations against him. Police are examining the complaints. A complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing, and the accounts of what happened before the apparent slap remain in dispute.
The Delhi unit of Verma’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expressed regret over the incident while arguing that the AAP side provoked the confrontation. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also criticised Verma’s conduct, widening a dispute that began at a local inspection into an argument among national political figures.
For residents, the original question has not disappeared amid the political exchange: was the road built to the required standard? That calls for an assessment of the work itself, separate from any examination of the confrontation. The video shows why the encounter drew scrutiny; it cannot answer every claim made about either the road or the people at the scene.
