Strict action against those who hit elected representatives: Devendra Fadnavis

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday that strict action would be taken against those who had assaulted Congress MLA Gopaldas Agarwal and other elected representatives. The CM also accepted a suggestion of looking into having a rule to protect elected representatives from physical violence.

Fadnavis made the announcement after the lower house saw repeated disruptions and three adjournments, with question hour not being taken up, on Monday. Raising the issue, leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said: "Under the new government, incidents of violence against elected representatives are on the rise. It has been 48 hours since Agarwal was attacked and government is yet to take the issue seriously."

Agarwal and his son were assaulted by Shiv Sharma of the BJP while he was holding a press conference to inform the media about the work done by him. "If you are going to have the police by your side, have us assaulted and then simply suspend your party worker, then that will not be tolerated," said NCP leader Jayant Patil.

Sharma has been on the run after attacking Agarwal and the police are yet to arrest him. "The police is in the process of taking statements and we will take as much action against Sharma as we can," Fadnavis said. On the issue of former NCP MLA Vijay Wagh also being assaulted, the CM said that the MLA had had a fight with a senior police officer and he later broke a CCTV camera, wireless set and other equipment. "We have suspended the police officer since he had used excessive force," Fadnavis said.