This is an archive article published on February 10, 2024
‘Wagle ignored police advice, warnings’: Pune commissioner denies allegations of inaction after attack on journalist’s car
Nikhil Wagle’s car was attacked as he headed for a meeting of the Nirbhay Bano Manch in Pune. Stones were pelted at the car by BJP workers who also threw bricks, eggs and ink at it.
Nikhil Wagle was attacked as he was headed towards Nile Phule auditorium near Dandekar Pul in Pune for a meeting of the Nirbhay Bano Manch on Friday. Activists Vishwambhar Choudhary and Asim Sarode were also in the car with him. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)
Under fire for failing to prevent the attackon Nikhil Wagle’s car by BJP workers, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Saturday denied the allegations and said the senior journalist acted against police advice.
“The allegations being levelled are totally false. Nikhil Wagle was told a hundred times not to leave the place where he was put up. He did not listen to us. We had also advised him against coming to Pune as the atmosphere was charged due to his objectionable social media post,” the commissioner told The Indian Express.
Nikhil Wagle was attacked as he was headed towards Nile Phule auditorium near Dandekar Pul in Pune for a meeting of the Nirbhay Bano Manch on Friday. Activists Vishwambhar Choudhary and Asim Sarode were also in the car with him. Stones were pelted at the car by motorcycle-borne BJP workers who also threw bricks, eggs and ink at it in four places. The car was badly damaged. The journalist has been facing protests over his social media post criticising the Bharat Ratna honour for BJP leader LK Advani.
Story continues below this ad
Following the attack, the Pune police came under severe fire from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for allowing BJP workers to go on a rampage on Friday as police personnel remained mute spectators.
Commissioner Kumar said, “First we had advised Wagle not to come to Pune. He did not listen. When he arrived here, we told him to stay put and leave the place only when he was told. But he did not listen. We told him that there was a huge crowd outside and heavy traffic because of which it would be difficult for us to check for stray elements. He ignored all our requests and left Asim Sarode’s house by himself. He was repeatedly advised not to leave, but he refused to listen. In fact, he was rude to our police officials.”
“Though he left the place, we ensured that a team accompanied him for protection. There was heavy traffic on the roads and his car was taking a different route from the designated one. They were avoiding the police and the car driver was also taking U-turns… It was becoming difficult for police personnel to monitor his car. If you see the video, you will find that our police personnel in plainclothes were trying to block the agitators from getting close to the car.”
Asked why BJP workers were not nabbed at the very first place when they tried to attack the car, the commissioner said, “We detained several BJP workers and the process was underway. (BJP unit chief) Dheeraj Ghate and other workers were detained and taken to Shivajinagar police grounds. We also picked up several BJP workers from some points.”
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
3 min read
