Well-planned conspiracy to kill me, govt behind attack: Pravin Gaikwad

Gaikwad said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is also the state Home Minister and responsible for the law and order situation in the state

Gaikwad (centre) said as he was attacked, he tried to enter his vehicle

REACTING to the attack on him in Akkalkot, Pravin Gaikwad on Monday alleged the attackers wanted to kill him. He also alleged the attack was a well-planned conspiracy and the state government was behind it.

“The attackers wanted to kill me but my associates came to my rescue,” Gaikwad said. His associates claimed he found it difficult to breathe as the black substance covered his head, eyes, face and neck. “They did not even allow him to wipe off the substance,” one of his supporters said.

Gaikwad said as he was attacked, he tried to enter his vehicle. “But the attackers followed me and tried to kill me,” he said, adding the government was behind it. “The attackers were present in Akkalkot before I arrived there. The police knew they were there. The government is responsible for the attack,” he said.

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He said he had gone to Akkalkot for a felicitation function. “The organisers had invited me for a felicitation function… The person to be felicitated had done good work in education and social field. When I arrived, crackers were burst and music was being played. Then there was a sudden attack… Though it was sudden I think it was well-planned. I suspect the organisers were also involved because they did not file any case against the attackers nor was there any intervention from them. The attacker is the BJP’s Yuva Morcha general secretary,” he said.

Gaikwad said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is also the state Home Minister and responsible for the law and order situation in the state. “Fadnavis should take moral responsibility for the attack on me,” he said.

He said they don’t have personal enmity with accused Deepak Kate but have ideological differences. “We believe in the ideology of Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar. We follow the Constitution of India while they believe in Manusmriti. We have a progressive mindset.”

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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