JOIN USLegislators Kshitij Thakur and Ram Kadam, arrested for beating up a traffic police officer inside Vidhan Bhavan, were on Thursday sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
The two were produced before the local magistrate court after the expiry of police custody. Meanwhile, police officers are also preparing case papers for the arrests of three other suspended legislators who had participated in the assault that led to the hospitalisation of API Suryavanshi on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in the Legislative Assembly, members cutting across the party lines who had condemned the incident on Tuesday, stalled the proceedings on Friday, demanding suspension of two crime branch officials who had entered Vidhan Bhavan to arrest the MLAs.
The legislators also demanded that the CCTV footage of the beating up of the cop be rechecked and if the suspended MLAs are not seen in the footage depicting the attack then the suspension should be revoked. The assault on the cop had rocked not just Maharashtra but had also stunned the entire nation. The ferocity of the assault in which over 15 legislators allegedly participated was so severe that the injured cop had to be rushed to a nearby government hospital for medical aid.
On Wednesday, the Marine Drive Police Station, registered an FIR against Thakur, Kadam and 14 others for pouncing on ASI Suryvanshi attached to the Worli Traffic Police division inside Vidhan Bhavan. Top police officials led by the State DGP and City Police Commissioner, met the chief minister seeking his intervention and action against the guilty parties.
The legislators on Tuesday were enraged as API Suryvanshi had fined Thakur for over-speeding on Bandra-Worli Sea-Link bridge on Monday.
Thakur moved a privilege motion asking explanation from the traffic police; API Suryavanshi was summoned and when he was sitting outside the Legislative Council Deputy Chairman’s office, Thakur and Kadam along with some other legislators pounced on him. The attack sparked off a furore and on Wednesday and the Speaker suspended five legislators, Thakur, Kadam, Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena), Ram Kadam (MNS), Jaykumar Rawal (BJP) and Pradeep Jaiswal.