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Five Maharashtra legislators suspended for assaulting cop

MUMBAI — The Maharashtra legislative assembly on Wednesday suspended five legislators till December 31, for beating up a traffic cop within the legislature premises.

Harshvardhan Patil, the state’s parliamentary affairs minister, moved the resolution suspending the five legislators; the house immediately passed it. The legislators — including Kshitij Thakur of the Bahujan Vikas Agadhi, Ram Kadam (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), Jaykumar Rawal (BJP), Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena) and Pradeep Jaiswal (independent) have been barred from attending the legislature’s proceedings till December 31.

All five legislators are accused of having thrashed Sachin Suryavanshi, an assistant police inspector, outside the visitor’s gallery of the state legislature on Tuesday.

A day earlier, Suryavanshi had stopped Thakur’s car on the Bandra-Worli sealink as it was speeding at over 100km per hour, violating the speed limit of 50kmph.

After a heated argument, Thakur paid the fine, but accused the traffic cop of misbehaving. The next day he moved a breach of privilege notice in the house against Suryavanshi. The police officer was present in the legislature. According to Thakur, he made provocative gestures from the visitor’s gallery.

Accompanied by other MLAs, the young legislator — who is the son of controversial politician Hitendra Thakur and nephew of gangster Jayendra (Bhai) Thakur — went up to Suryavanshi and attacked him. The traffic cop was rescued by the security staff, but had to be carried out on a stretcher and rushed to a hospital.

The shocking act was condemned by senior political leaders in the state. Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil apologised to citizens on behalf of the legislators, while chief minister Prithviraj Chavan described it as a reprehensible act. He also promised quick action.

Home minister R R Patil visited the injured traffic cop in the hospital. On Wednesday, parliamentary affairs minister Patil condemned the violence by the MLAs and said it had lowered the dignity of the house.

A group of senior police officers also met Chavan and demanded stern action against the legislators. Mumbai’s police commissioner Satyapal Singh said that several cases had been filed against the five legislators and criminal action would be initiated. — news@khaleejtimes.com