By IANS,
New Delhi: The man who threatened Congress leader Janardhan Dwivedi with a shoe at a press conference here was never a journalist, a Rajasthan-based organisation, for whom the man claimed to be working for, said Monday.
“Sunil Kumar had never worked here at Nav Sanchar Patrika,” Mukesh S. Mond, the editor of the now defunct publication, told IANS.
The assailant, in his 30s, identified himself as Sunil Kumar working for Nav Sanchar Patrika to gain entry to the press conference at the Congress headquarters here.
“We did not issue him a press card,” Mond said.
The Nav Sanchar Patrika was a fortnightly house journal of Jhunjhunu-based Sainik Academy, a coaching institute, but it stopped publication last year.
“He used to teach English (at the academy) but had left seven month earlier,” Mond said.
Dwivedi was holding a press conference on the crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s anti-graft stir, when the incident took place in the full view of TV cameras.
Sunil Kumar came very near to the dais where Dwivedi was sitting and threateningly raised a shoe at him. But Dwivedi pushed him away. A security guard caught him and journalists present also pounced on the man, who was then whisked away by security men.
He was taken to the Tughlak Road police station.
This was the latest in a string of shoe-related assaults on public figures in India.