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Beed sarpanch murder case: Marathi actor Prajakta Mali slams BJP MLA over ‘derogatory’ remarks

Dhas mentioned about actor in rally over Beed murder, says won’t apologise.

3 min read
Backing Prajakta Mali, Chitra Wagh, who is state president of BJP’s women's wing, in a post on X, said, “BJP gives the highest priority to women's dignity (Express)

As Marathi actor Prajakta Mali slammed BJP MLA Suresh Dhas for allegedly making a “derogatory” remark against her and dragging her name into issue of Beed sarpanch murder, several BJP leaders lent their support to the actor.

On Saturday, the actor, who hosts Sony Marathi’s comedy series Maharashtrachi Hasyajatra, said that she will also approach the state women’s commission and file a complaint.

“Dhas’s remarks were derogatory and in bad taste. In his bid for one-upmanship on the political terrain, he unnecessarily tried to drag our names into it (the Beed murder issue)… His comments were entire baseless. Women, especially, actors, should not be made soft targets….Dhas should apologise for it,” the actor said in a press conference in Mumbai.

Dhas, however, said that he will not apologise. “I have not said anything objectionable. They should carefully review my statement.”

Dhas made the remarks Saturday in a rally where he attacked Minister Dhananjay Munde and his close associate Valmik Karad over the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.

During his speech, the BJP alleged that Munde and his aide had created “Parli pattern”, claiming that they invited actor actors for various events. Dhas said Prajakta Mali and other actors were familiar with Parli.

Meanwhile, Minister Chandrakant Patil said that Dhas should ensure that he does not defame any woman or an actor.

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“We are descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj… Shivaji Maharaj ensured no one tarnishes the character of a woman. A political controversy is underway but by dragging the name of an actor into it Suresh Dhas has let himself down. Dhas should ensure that he does not defame any woman or an actor. Yesterday, Prajakta Mali held a press conference and expressed her anger at Dhas’s remarks. him Being a party MLA, he should not have done this,” Patil said.

“I am going to personally tell him that he is a party MLA and he should not do this. I am going to call him up,” he added.

Backing Prajakta Mali, Chitra Wagh, who is state president of BJP’s women’s wing, in a post on X, said, “BJP gives the highest priority to women’s dignity. Therefore, no one has any right to throw mud by taking someone’s name… In this fight, Prajakta is not alone… I am assuring her.”

The actor has also said that she will meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and draw his attention to the matter.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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