Police outside NCP chief Sharad Pawar's South Mumbai residence Silver Oak. (Express photo) A magistrate court on Saturday sent 109 protesters, mostly striking employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), to judicial custody till they are granted bail and their legal counsel Gunaratna Sadavarte to police custody for two days.
This comes a day after they were arrested by the Gamdevi police for rioting outside NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence Silver Oak in Mumbai.
The day also witnessed DCP (Detection) Neelotpal being given full-time charge as the DCP of Zone II, under whose jurisdiction Silver Oak falls. Neelotpal replaced DCP (Headquarters) Yogesh Kumar, who was in charge of Zone II when Pawar’s residence was attacked.
Kumar was given the charge after Saurabh Tripathi, the earlier DCP of Zone II, was suspended when he was named as an accused in the angadia extortion case.
The police, in its remand application, sought custody of the accused. Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat argued that they want to find out who is the mastermind behind the conspiracy. He added that in the rioting, police personnel were injured and some protesters were found in an inebriated condition.
The police further said it wants to find out if Sadavarte is among those behind the conspiracy. It alleged that Sadavarte, on April 7, had met protestors at Azad Maidan and told them they should protest at Baramati outside Pawar’s residence on April 12 and not allow him to leave the house.
Sadavarte’s lawyer Mahesh Vaswani, however, denied that his client had made any such an appeal. Vaswani argued before the court that Sadavarte has been fighting cases against the Maharashtra government, which has prompted it to falsely implicate him. “He has raised his voice against the state government, including the home minister, and hence, action is being taken against him,” he said, adding that protestors have been fighting for their rights for five months but no leader came to help them.
The police also accused Sadavarte of allegedly making provocative speeches against Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders like Sanjay Raut, Nawab Malik and Anil Parab. Along with Sadavarte, at least four other arrested accused – Hanumant Waghmare, Krishnat Kore, Tajuddin Shaikh and Govind Masarankar- are being probed in connection to the conspiracy charge.
The lawyer told the court that Sadavarte has health issues and requested it to allow him his medicines. The request was granted by the court. He also asked for the medical report of the policemen who sustained injuries at the hands of the protesters.
Advocate for the protesters, Sandeep Gaikwad, told the court, “The protesters are mere workers. They are not criminal minded. Please try to understand their problem.”
Since last November, the employees have been seeking a merger with the state government so that they can enjoy the benefits of a government employee.
On Friday, the Gamdevi police had registered an FIR against 132 people, mostly striking MSRTC employees, who allegedly tried to barge into Silver Oak. Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Vishwas Nangre Patil has been asked to investigate the lapses on the part of the police, which failed to pre-empt and prevent the incident.
The police told the court that while it had information regarding the possibility of a protest being held outside Pawar’s residence and had also deployed security outside Silver Oak, the protesters came in large numbers and did not pay heed to any warning. They broke barricades and manhandled personnel to reach Pawar’s residence, the police alleged.
Meanwhile, Pawar met state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil and Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey on Saturday. Walse-Patil told mediapersons that further investigation is on and action will be taken against more people once their role comes to light.
On Friday, Walse-Patil had said that Mumbai Police should have had information on the procession headed towards Silver Oak and that an inquiry would be conducted to find out if there was an intelligence failure. Sources said that more heads could roll if negligence is found on the part of the police.
An official maintained that important charges like DCP of Zone II should not be given as an additional charge. “It was decided that DCP Neelotpal should be appointed as the DCP of Zone II. Another officer will soon be appointed to take charge as DCP (Detection),” the official added.
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