A day after his PSO (personal security officer) filed an FIR against two women, one of them a senior citizen, for heckling Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, the latter on Tuesday said that the complaint would be withdrawn, while also appealing to the police to not investigate the case any further.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Rane, who has been under pressure from civil society as well as the Opposition initiating taking police action against the two women hecklers, also said that the two women were in need of professional help as they were “not well”.
“To put this in a nutshell, I think this needs to be ignored, and I urge the police not to take any action in this regard. I have asked my PSO to go to the police station in the morning and withdraw the complaint, so that the issue is put to rest,” Rane said.
“These ladies require help. What kind of help, that is up to you. I have nothing to do with these two ladies,” Rane also said.
Two women, who have not been formally identified by the police yet, have been booked in Goa on Monday for insulting the national flag, assaulting a police constable and heckling Goa’s Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, while the latter was on an official inspection at a Government hospital on Sunday.
They have been booked under Sections 352 (assault), 353 (preventing Government servant from discharge of duty), 504 (breach of peace), read along with relevant Sections of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971, according to a First Information Report filed by Rane’s PSO Sharad Chopdekar, who had said that the duo had also tried to pull at the national flag which was affixed to Rane’s official car.