The Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday rang down the curtain on an unsavoury episode in the Vidhan Bhavan premises — where a group of legislators assaulted a police officer in March this year — by revoking the suspension of five legislators allegedly involved in the incident.
The five MlAs, whose suspension was revoked, were: Kshitij Thakur (Bahujan Vikas Aghadi), Ram Kadam (MNS), Jaikumar Rawal (BJP), Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent) and Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena).
Tabling a resolution that seeks the revocation of the suspension of five legislators allegedly involved in the assault on Assistant Police Inspector (Traffic) Sachin Suryavanshi in the Vidhan Bhavan premises, legislative Affairs Minister Harvardan Patil said that the State Government was moving the resolution in view of the findings of a House committee and a consensus arrived at a meeting of group leaders of various parties held last week.
“It was a highly disgraceful and shocking incident, for which five legislators had been suspended. The State Government had appointed a committee under senior-most legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh to probe the matter, which, in its final report has suggested that the suspension of all of them must be revoked,” Patil said.
“At a meeting of group leaders of various parties, a consensus was reached on the revocation of the suspension of the five MlAs. leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse has also assured us that, such an incident would never occur again. Thus, after considering these facts, the State Government hereby presents the proposal of revoking the suspension of the legislators,” Patil said. Through a voice vote, the House later adopted the resolution, moved by Patil, recommending revocation of the five MlAs in question.
On March 20 this year, the five MlAs were suspended from the Assembly. The resolution adopted by the House then had not only barred the five legislators from participating in the House proceedings, but also restricted them from entering the legislature premises in Mumbai and Nagpur till December 31, 2013.
The suspension of the five legislators came a day after API Suryavanshi was assaulted by a group of MlAs in Vidhan Bhavan. The assault on Suryavanshi was fallout of an incident on March 18 — which saw Suryavanshi stop the vehicle of Kshitij and fine him for travelling at a speed of 101 km per hour on the Bandra-Worli Sea link, where the stipulated speed limit is 50 kmph.
The suspension of five MlAs had sparked wide-spread protests for four consecutive working days in the State Assembly, with members cutting across the party lines demanding action against Suryavanshi for misbehavior with Kshitij and suspension of a few police officers who entered Vidhan Bhavan to arrest two of the errant MlAs.
However, the two MlAs, Kshitij and Kadam — and 14 others against whom an FIR had been registered on March 19 at the Marine Drive police station — had been booked for assaulting, criminal intimidation, rioting etc. The two MlAs were arrested on March 21,
but the court granted them bail on March 25.
Following the suspension of the five MlAs, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil had announced the setting up of a seven-member committee of legislators, under the senior-most MlA Ganpatrao Deshmukh of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) to probe the assault on Suryavanshi by a group of legislators.
The Ganpatrao Deshmukh-led House committee submitted its report to the Speaker during the fag end of the Budget Session of the State legislature. On his part, the Speaker had on April 18 read out the recommendations of the house committee, on the floor of the Assembly.
The committee had, among other things, found the conduct of traffic sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi with legislator Kshitij Thakur on the Bandra Worli sea link on March 18 as “objectionable” and recommended departmental inquiry against him. According to the committee, API Suryavanshi was indeed assaulted in Vidhan Bhavan.
While recommending the revocation of the suspension of the three MlAs, the committee wanted that its recommendation be implemented during the Budget Session of the State legislature.