Chargesheet filed against ex-judge Kolse Patil

The Shivajinagar police filed a chargesheet against former Bombay high court judge, BG Kolse Patil (70), and others recently for staging protest in front of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) main building and violating prohibitory orders.

Kolse Patil and other activists had staged a sit-in in front of the civic body’s building on August 25 this year, demanding the removal of the statue of Dadoji Konddev, said to be the mentor of Chhatrapati Shivaji, from the historical Lal Mahal.

Apart from the former judge, the founder of Maratha Seva Sangh (MSS), Purushottam Suryabhan Khedekar (60); Vikas Pasalkar (35) and Trupti Desai (32) and 49 others were also booked under the sections of 143 (punishment) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (1860) and the Bombay Police Act (1951).

The investigating officer, police inspector Maya Bankar, filed the chargesheet before the court of additional chief judicial magistrate, VK Kadam.

Buckling under pressure from the activists, even Pune mayor Mohansingh Rajpal at that time had to make an announced the removal of the controversial statue from Lal Mahal before a gathering of over 2,000 people led by former Supreme Court judge PB Sawant and Kolse Patil under the banner of Lokshasan Andolan.

Since American scholar James W Laine wrote the book, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, in 2003 containing controversial relationship of Konddev with Shivaji, Maratha organisations have been demanding the removal of Konddev’s statue from Lal Mahal.