Andekar did not assault civic officer, claims Mayor

PUNE, June 4: Pune Mayor Vatsala Andekar today clarified that her brother, corporator Umakant Andekar, was in no way connected with the alle...

PUNE, June 4: Pune Mayor Vatsala Andekar today clarified that her brother, corporator Umakant Andekar, was in no way connected with the alleged assault and nude parade of junior engineer (water supply) Arvind Shirke attached to the Bhavani Peth divisional ward office.

Speaking to media persons, she said that the alleged incident was being exploited by her political rivals from Bhavani Peth area to malign her family’s image. The mayor also issued a written clarification signed by Umakant, who was not present during her press briefing.

Umakant has stated in the clarification that Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor’s statement yesterday that the incident was a fallout of an alleged dispute between Shirke and the unidentified corporator over sharing the payoffs on a civic project being carried out in Ward No. 76 (Parshi Agyari) had caused a misunderstanding in the minds of the citizens since he represented the ward.

The Mayor said she would discuss the matter with Kapoor tomorrow and try to clear the misunderstanding. “It could be anybody, not necessarily my brother, since there are 13 civic wards falling within jurisdiction of the Bhavani Peth divisional ward office,” according to her.

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