There was pandemonium in the state assembly on Thursday over the issue MNS MLA Harshavardhan Jadhav being beaten up by the police in the first week of January.
There was pandemonium in the state assembly on Thursday over the issue MNS MLA Harshavardhan Jadhav being beaten up by the police in the first week of January.
The government, especially home minister RR Patil, faced unprecedented wrath of MLAs from all the parties over the issue. Later, they took it to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan who ensured action after seeking legal opinion.
Although the opposition MLAs were more active in the house, it was the Congress MLAs who went all out to take the issue to the chief minister outside the house.
In a meeting with Chavan, it was clarified that the NCP was not keen on stern action against the police. However, their feelings on the issue were very strong.
But the Congress MLAs expressed their anguish and demanded stern action against the police officers involved in the incident. Sunil Kedar (Congress) told Chavan that they supported the opposition demand and urged him not to shield the police officers.
Yashomati Thakur (Congress) said that her party MLAs support the demand as they feel it is a matter of their privilege and pride.
The issue was raised in the assembly during question hour.
Cutting across party lines, the members flayed the home minister and his department. The question was raised by Vinod Ghosalkar of Shiv Sena and he was later joined by all the opposition parties.
They demanded suspension of the police officers immediately.
When the home minister tried to justify the police action claiming that Jadhav violated the security barriers and attacked a lady constable, the furore in the house intensified.
This led to adjournment of the house for two times — 2 hours — and later for the day.
Patil also claimed that the MLA was involved in a series of illegal activities and the police department had proposed to extern him from the district.
“The MLA attacked a lady constable on duty when he was stopped from entering a restricted area during the chief minister’s visit. How can we object police action in such cases,” argued Patil.
Harshavardhan Jadhav (MNS) said that it was a planned attack by the police as the MLA had raised his voice against illicit liquor in his constituency.
“We made complaints against a police officer who was caught red-handed while selling illicit liquor on three occasions. But no action was taken against him. Even when I took the women from my constituency to the home minister at his official bungalow, he ordered to arrest us,” Jadhav said.
Congress MLAs Nilesh Parvekar, Virendra Jagtapt, Sunil Kedar and others supported the demand of suspension of the police officers. However, Patil said that the case was subjudice and action cannot be taken now.
It was proposed to form a committee of party group leaders to probe into the issue. However, MNS opposed the move and demanded suspension of the officers with immediate effect.
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