Seven, including BJP worker, booked for blackening face of Sambhaji Brigade leader

Police have booked the accused under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 115(2), 189(2), 191(2),190, 324(4). Sambhaji Bhosale (40), an office-bearer of Sambhaji Brigade’s Solapur unit, lodged the FIR in the case at the Akkalkot North police station.

Sub-division police officer (Akkalkot) Vilas Yamavar said the offence is bailable, so the accused were not arrested, but preventive action was taken against them as per the law. Gaikwad has blamed the state government for the attack and claimed it was part of a conspiracy to kill him. His supporters demanded that attempt to murder charges should be invoked against the accused.

Police, however, said additional charges can be invoked against the accused if the medical examination of the victim reveals grievous injuries. Meanwhile, Gaikwad and his supporters have alleged the government is trying to protect the accused and hence only bailable sections were invoked against them.

As per the FIR, Gaikwad came to Akkalkot for attending a function organised by Shri Fattesinh Shikshan Santha and Sakal Maratha Samaj at Priyadarshini Hall for felicitating Janmejay Raje Bhosale, around 1 am on Sunday. While Gaikwad was walking towards the hall, all of a sudden, the activists of Shivdharma Foundation intercepted him. They poured black oil on Gaikwad’s head, blackened his face and also manhandled him.

The Shivdharma Foundation had been protesting against the name of the organisation Sambhaji Brigade, claiming that it made an ekeri ullekh (singular reference) of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the legendary king known for his sacrifices. The Shivdharma Foundation demanded that Sambhaji Brigade be renamed “Dharmaveer Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Brigade”.

Calling it an attack on his “vichardhara (ideology)”, Gaikwad compared the attackers with the killers of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, communist leader Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Gaikwad told mediapersons that he had earlier held talks with Kate twice regarding the demand to change the name “Sambhaji Brigade”. “There was a technical difficulty in changing the name because one Sachin Kamble of Mumbai had already registered a separate group with the name Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade…,” he said.

Claiming a threat to the life of “purogami (progressive)” people in the state, Gaikwad raised suspicion on why police were not deployed at the function he was attending in Akkalkot.

Yamavar told mediapersons it was an indoor felicitation programme. “We knew about it, but being an indoor function for which the organisers had not informed or taken any police permission, no police bandobast was deployed at the spot,” he said.

Yamavar said two accused were nabbed immediately after the incident. “No VIP treatment was given to the accused,” he said.

In January this year, when Deepak Kate was about to board a flight from Pune to Hyderabad, the security personnel who checked his luggage found 28 live rounds of 7.65 mm calibre and two magazines in his bag. An FIR was lodged against him at the Vimantal police station in Pune under the Indian Arms Act. He was arrested by the police, but later released on bail. Kate had claimed someone had planted the bullets in his bag in a conspiracy to defame him. BJP leaders claimed the party distanced itself from him after bullets were found in his bag.

In 2020, Kate had protested against a company manufacturing hand-rolled cigarettes “Sambhaji Beedi”, claiming it defamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Kate had also lodged a complaint against the company at the Swargate police station in Pune city. Following agitations by several groups including Kate’s Shivdharma Foundation, the company changed the name to “Sable Beedi”.