New Delhi: Out of 26 FIRs registered by Thane police in Maharashtra against opposition party members since Eknath Shinde came to power, 21 are in connection with social media posts which appear to criticise the new chief minister, Indian Express has reported.
Among those booked is rapper Raj Mungase on whom The Wire had reported earlier. Mungase’s song, Chor, without naming names, had attacked the Eknath Shinde-led government.
The Indian Express report notes that aside from Mungase, the 25 other Thane FIRs are all against members of the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction, Nationalist Congress Party or Congress.
Most of these include the section 153 (A) of the Indian Penal Code which accuses an individual of promoting enmity between different groups.
Another curious point highlighted by the report is that 11 FIRs were initially registered against former Nationalist Congress Party MP Anand Paranjpe. These were combined into one following a rap by the Bombay high court.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray and the party’s Maha Vikas Aghadi allies, NCP and Congress, have led protests in particular against the lopsided police attention to the alleged assault of party leader Roshni Shinde on April 2.
Shinde was allegedly slapped by women members of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena wing in response to a social media post she had made against the new CM. The assault was allegedly caught on CCTV camera too. However, Thane police registered two FIRs against Roshni Shinde herself. Against her own police complaint, cops registered a ‘non-cognisable offence’ and moved court on April 4 for permission to investigate it.
The Express report notes that Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar has sought to highlight Eknath Shinde’s immense clout at Thane. Eknath Shinde is a Thane MLA and his son Shrikant is the Thane Lok Sabha representative.
Pawar also said that Shinde’s power in Thane preceded his takeover as CM in a dramatic break away from the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Pawar alleged that when Sena MLAs were rushing to Surat to orchestrate the takedown of the previous government, Thane police had gone against the directions of Uddhav Thackeray – who had asked for vehicles to be sent back from the border.
“Thackeray as CM had given all authority to Shinde to decide who would be (appointed as) officers in Thane,” the newspaper quoted Pawar as having said.
The paper noted that an October 16, 2018, notification by the Department of Personnel and Training, shows that of the five zones under the Thane Police Commissionerate, Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) from Zones I to IV are cadre postings. Currently, only DCP (Zone IV) and DCP (Special Branch) are promoted IPS officers, while the other four posts are held by state cadre officers.
“Apart from the Thane Police Commissioner, there is not a single direct IPS officer in Thane currently, which is rare. This shows necessary criteria has not been followed in these postings,” a source told the paper.