The attack on Chandrakant Patil came a day after he made a ‘controversial’ statement in Paithan town of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district. (File) The Pune city police have booked a political activist for allegedly misbehaving with an on-duty policeman outside the house of BJP leader and minister Chandrakant Patil in Kothrud in the early hours of Monday.
The police have identified the accused as Sachin Kudale, 42, a resident of Kothrud area. The police said Kudale along with a woman went to Patil’s bungalow in Kothrud after 12 pm.
Police havaldar Sachin Sonawane, who was on duty at the spot, questioned the duo. But they allegedly misbehaved with the cop and filmed a video standing outside Patil’s bungalow.
In his video, Kudale claims to be a Congress activist and condemns Patil’s alleged objectionable remark against social reformers. He then released the video on social media. The police have booked Kudale and a woman in this case for allegedly causing a disturbance in government work. Police inspector Hanmant Patil confirmed that an FIR has been lodged against the accused as per Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Meanwhile, the police arrested Kudale in another case for allegedly posting objectionable content on social media.
On Saturday, activists of the Samata Sainik Dal had thrown ink on Patil while he was stepping out of the house of a local BJP leader and former corporator Moreshwar Shedge in Pune’s Chinchwad. The Pimpri-Chinchwad police arrested three persons in this case.
The attack on Patil came a day after he made a ‘controversial’ statement in Paithan town of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district.
It may be recalled that speaking at an event in Paithan Friday, Patil said: “Who started establishing schools in the county? Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil did, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar did, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule did. So when all these people started schools, the government did not give them grants. They went to people and begged for money saying, ‘We are starting schools, give us money.’ There were people who donated money to the tune of Rs 10 at the time. These days there are people who donate to the tune of Rs 10 crore… for example, there are CSR funds.”
After his words were taken as an insult to these leaders and led to controversy, Patil clarified while speaking to the media, “If people are saying, I should have used the words like vargani (contributory donation) or CSR, then those words were not in use at the time. What people used to say at the time – ‘mi bheek magitli (I begged people for money) and built my institution.’ The word is used in that context. In spite of that, if people have been offended by the use of the word, bheek (to beg), then I want to apologize. I have nothing but the utmost respect for these social reformers.”