The Mumbai Police will file a chargesheet against two Maharashtra MlAs, who were arrested in March this year for allegedly assaulting a police officer on the Vidhan Bhavan premises, in a local court by June 30.
In a submission made before a division bench of the Bombay High Court, State Advocate General Darius Khambata said that the city crime branch officials were still in the midst of investigations into the incident and that they would file a charge-sheet against the two MlAs —Kshitij Thakur of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) and Ram Kadam of the MNS — on or before June 30.
Khambata attributed the delay in filing a chargesheet in the case, to the delay in the receipt of the CCTV footage of the incident by the police and the fact that the footage received from the Vidhan Bhavan lacked clarity.
“The Crime Branch received the CCTV footage from inside the Vidhan Bhavan only on May 31. The footage is not very clear and hence it has to be sent to forensic laboratory. Once the footage is clear, other assailants, if any and witnesses can be identified,” Khambata said.
The HC Division Bench of Justices PV Hardas and Mridula Bhatkar was hearing a petition filed by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro, seeking action against the assailants and revocation of suspension of assistant traffic sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi, who was assaulted on the Vidhan Bhavan premises on March 19.
Kshitij and Kadam were among the five MlAs who were suspended from the Maharashtra legislative Assembly on March 20, for allegedly assaulting Suryavanshi on the Vidhan Bhavan premises on the previous day.
The three other legislators who were allegedly involved incident were — Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena), Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent) and Jaykumar Raval (BJP). However, a house committee that probed the incident subsequently recommended the revocation of their suspension.
Suryavanshi was thrashed by a group of legislators on the Vidhan Bhavan premises on March 19, a day after he fined Thakur — MlA — notorious for his money and muscle power — for a traffic violation on the iconic Worli Sea link in South-central Mumbai.
The assault on Suryavanshi was direct fallout of the previous day’s incident — which saw Suryavanshi stop the vehicle of Kshitij and fine him for over-speeding on the Worli Sea link. Kshitij had been fined by Suryavanshi travelling at a speed of 101 km/ph on the Worli Sea link, where the stipulated speed limit is 50 km/ph.
Buckling under pressure from the members of all political parties in the Maharashtra Assembly, the State Government on March 25 ordered the suspension of Suryavanshi for “misbehaving” with BVA MlA Kshitij Thakur and constituted a seven-member legislators’ committee to probe the assault on him by MlAs on the Vidhan Bhavan premises.
Khambata told the HC bench that the suspension order passed against Suryavanshi was currently before a revision committee which was likely to take a final decision within two weeks.
It may be recalled that the seven-member House committee, headed by senior-most member Ganpatrao Deshmukh of the Peasants Workers’ Party (PWP), had — in its report submitted to Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil on April 18 — found the conduct of police officer Suryavanshi with legislator Kshitij Thakur on the Bandra Worli Sea link on March 18 as “objectionable” and recommended departmental inquiry against him.