Shinde government comes under fire over controversy involving two MLAs

Two incidents involving MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have put the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government on the dock with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi targeting the dispensation in Maharashtra on the issue of law and order.

The two MLAs are Prakash Surve of Magathane in the suburbs of Mumbai and Kishor Patil of Pachora in Jalgaon district.

Surve’s son Raj Surve has been booked by the Vanrai police station of Mumbai on charges of kidnapping and assaulting a businessman who is the CEO of a music company and making him sign certain documents.

Patil’s supporters allegedly beat up a journalist Sandeep Mahajan for raising the issue of the rape-murder of of an eight-year-old girl and demanding justice for the family.

The twin incidents have come as an embarrassment to the government with people requesting Shinde and two Deputy Chief Ministers - Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar for action.

The development comes at a time when the government is contemplating yet another Cabinet expansion to fill up the vacancies in the council of ministers.

As far as Surve’s case is concerned, the victim is a CEO of a music company. The Vanrai police station in Goregaon has registered the FIR against Raj Surve and others.

In the CCTV footage of the music company, 10-15 people are seen forcibly entering an office, assaulting the staff and forcibly taking away one person at gunpoint. The man was later reached.

The junior Surve and others have been booked under sections 364-A, 452, 143, 147, 149, 323, 504 and 506 of Indian Penal Code and section 3 and 25 of Arms Act.

As far as the Pachora incident is concerned, the journalist was beaten up in a road by half a dozen people before some people came to his rescue. Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Vijay Wadettiwar and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut condemned the attack and alleged that "goons" of local Shiv Sena MLA Kishor Patil were behind it.

Patil, however, has denied the charges. NCP working president Supriya Sule also condemned the incident and demanded that the state government take action against the attackers. The police have booked unidentified persons under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 criminal intimidation.

Lashing out at the Shinde-led government, the Congress wanted to know whether rule of law exists in the state. “The goondagiri reflects jungle raj,” the state Congress said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted: “Check the ease of doing business introduced by traitor gang. Imagine their shamelessness.”

NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said: “Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the Home Minister, must take immediate cognisance and get these goons arrested, or people like these will have a free run of crime because they know they are connected to power.”