BJP unhappy after Shinde camp MLAs beat up journalist, ‘abduct’ CEO

MUMBAI: Incidents of violence caught on camera have caused discomfiture within the Maharashtra government, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party.

A journalist in Jalgaon who had criticised the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was on Wednesday beaten up in public. Sandeep Mahajan has alleged that Pachora Shiv Sena MLA Kishore Patil had sent his men to beat him up after an audio clip went viral in which Patil is abusing Mahajan for criticising Shinde. Mahajan had put up a post calling the CM’s visit to the family of an 8-year-old girl who was raped and murdered as an ‘eye wash’. Following the post, Patil had called up Mahajan and had given the choicest abuses as well as threatened him. The expletive-ridden audio clip had gone viral and Patil has admitted that it was him abusing Mahajan.

On Wednesday, Mahajan was beaten up by three youths who pulled him down from his scooter while he was travelling and then assaulted him. While the journalist has claimed that it was Mahajan’s men who had assaulted him, Patil had ‘condemned the incident’ and claimed his people were not involved in the assault.

The video of the assault of the journalist has gone viral with the Maharashtra opposition questioning the ‘goonda raj’ of those in the government.

The attack comes after another incident in which Magathane Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Surve’s son, Raj, abducted RK Singh, CEO of a music company, at gunpoint and took him to Surve’s office and forced him to sign some papers. The police have now named the MLA’s son in a complaint filed by the Singh.

The incidents have not gone down well with the BJP as many violent attacks involving Sena MLAs have been reported of late.