The Mumbai police is accused of turning a blind eye to acts by anti-social elements in stopping a survey work carried out by an industrial house on its own land in Gorai.
At a time when chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh is extending a red carpet to Tata Motors to set up the Nano car plant in Maharashtra, the Mumbai police is accused of turning a blind eye to acts by anti-social elements in stopping a survey work carried out by an industrial house on its own land in Gorai.
On Sunday, the Essel group’s survey work on their property was stopped by certain anti-social elements in Gorai. The instigators and the men behind the attack were allegedly encroachers, builders of unauthorised resorts on government land and owners of pubs without valid permits.
According to sources, they managed to assemble a mob of 400 to 500 people — mostly women — and attacked the survey team, manhandled them, held them hostage for nearly seven hours and the police of Gorai were helpless till additional reinforcements were rushed in.
The men who were involved in the attack were history-sheeters Peter Gudinho,
Desmond Gudinho, Lourdes D’souza and Noel Kinny. An official of the Essel group said there was no reason for the villagers to interfere with the proceedings of the survey as it was carried out within Essel’s property.
“The crowd, including the women from the villages, behaved in the most unruly manner and I would have got lynched had it not been for the timely protection provided by the police officers. After this incident, I am not sure whether we are living in an independent democracy or in a Taliban-run situation,” a company official said, who went through the ordeal.
A spokesman of the Essel group wondered if the government would take note of the incident and send signals to the business world by taking action against the anti-social elements. “The state’s inability to do so would discourage investors,” the spokesperson said.
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