Uproar over `goonda raj’ in Mumbai, Oppn walks out

Led by senior leaders like Pramod Navalkar, Sudhir Joshi and Prakash Jawadekar, the members kept repeatedly storming the well after Minister of State for Home (Rural) Manik Thakre replied during the debate on a calling attention motion by Shishir Shinde (Sena).

The government was asked to explain the November 27 incident in Mumbai when some relatives of 24 undertrial prisoners, including the aides of gangster Chhota Rajan, waylaid the police van — carrying the prisoners back to Nashik from the Arthur Road jail — and tried to facilitate the escape of one of them.

“Things have come to this alarming extent that people don’t think twice before intercepting a police van to facilitate such escape attempts. The incident indicates nothing but a woefully low morale of the police and the criminals’ audacity,” said leader of Opposition Nitin Gadkari. He accused the government of taking a soft approach towards gangsters and criminal elements at the cost of common people.

Soon after the chairman called for a debate on the motion, the minister of state for home informed the house that all the 22 relatives including 11 women, involved in the incident, were arrested the same day and booked, among other things, for unlawful assembly, rioting, abusing, threatening and obstructing public servant from carrying out his duty. They were produced in the court which ordered their release on bail the next day.

He said, among the 24 prisoners two were the associates of gangster Chhota Rajan and they all were being taken back to the Nashik jail after being produced before the court in Mumbai. At the entrance of Arthur Road jail, the relatives tried to provide `food tiffins and other domestic material’ to the prisoners but were prevented from doing so by the accompanying police.

As the van started from the jail, the relatives chased it in private `taxis’ and intercepted the van at a traffic junction, a kilometer away from the jail. Again they tried to provide food and other materials but were dissuaded by the escort party and soon the relatives got violent and tried to break the van’s window grills while abusing the policemen. In the melee, one of them managed to bend the grill and tried to run away when the local police came to the rescue of the police escort. All the 22 relatives were taken into custody, the minister stated.

Moment after Thakre concluded his reply, Shinde was on his feet demanding why the police did not make a compact case against the 22 relatives to ensure that they did not get a bail. Especially, in the light of the serious nature of the offence.

Thakre’s response that the police action was in consonance with the offence, brought the entire Opposition to its feet. While Shinde sought to know whether the government would act against the police officers concerned for dereliction of duty by not booking the relatives on proper counts, Jawadakar took exception to Thakre’s statement that the van was `stopped by the relatives’ for providing food and material. “Are you justifying the act by saying so,” he remarked.

Gadkari joined in by wondering how people can become so audacious adding that the present government has gone soft on these measures if the verbal orders by Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal to police were of any indication, he charged. The minister countered by saying that encounters happen at the spur of the moment and cannot be ordered, written or otherwise. Soon, the Opposition members stormed the well raising slogans and demanding Bhujbal’s resignation, prompting Chairman of Council N S Pharande to adjourn the House for 10 minutes.

When the House resumed, Deputy Chairman Vasant Daokhare had taken over over from Pharande and announced that there would be no further discussions on calling attention motions and sought further proceedings. This again sparked a fresh bout of din and protests by the Opposition. As many as 14 bills were passed in the process and the House was adjourned for the day.