Police to charge-sheet MLAs who assaulted cop in Maha House

Mumbai police is all set to charge sheet two Maharashtra MLAs who had assaulted a police officer inside the legislative assembly premises by June 30, the Bombay High Court was informed today.

Advocate General Darius Khambata told a division bench of Justices P V Hardas and Mridula Bhatkar that investigation into the case was on and a charge sheet would be filed against MNS MLA Ram Kadam and Kshitij Thakur of Bahujan Vikas Agadhi on or before June 30.

The two were among five MLAs who had allegedly assaulted assistant police inspector Sachin Suryavanshi in Vidhan Bhavan premises on March 19.

Jaykumar Rawal (BJP), Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena) and Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent) were also allegedly involved in the fracas but were later given a clean chit by a House panel.

The division bench was hearing a petition filed by former Mumbai police commissioner and Punjab police chief Julio Ribeiro seeking action against the assailants and revocation of Suryavanshi's suspension.

Suryavanshi was allegedly assaulted a day after daring to stop Thakur's vehicle and imposing a fine for over-speeding on the Bandra-Worli Sea link.

"The crime branch has received CCTV footage from inside the Vidhan Bhawan only on May 31. The footage is not very clear and hence has to be sent to forensic lab. Once the footage is clear other assailants, if any, and witnesses can be identified," Khambata said.

The advocate general added that the suspension order passed against Suryavanshi is presently before a revision committee which is likely to take a final decision within two weeks.

Considering that all the prayers put forth by Ribeiro in his petition have been addressed by the police, the court asked the retired IPS officer to withdraw his petition.

After all five MLAs were suspended from the assembly for their unruly conduct, the government had on March 25 announced suspension of Suryavanshi for "misbehaving" with Kshitij Thakur as MLAs cutting across party affiliations disrupted the proceedings of the assembly.

It also constituted a House panel to go into the incident.

The House committee later gave a clean chit to Rawal, Salvi and Jaiswal (Independent) as it did not find proof of their involvement in the incident, recommended revocation of their suspension, and a departmental inquiry against Suryavanshi.