Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday assured the State Assembly that he would speak to his Karnataka counterpart on the issue of FIR registered against State Home Minister RR Patil last week for an alleged provocative speech by the Belgaum police and request the latter to drop the charges against Patil.
Intervening in a debate on the issue in the State Assembly, Chavan said the FIR registered against Patil by the Karnataka police was a “wrong action” and said he would take up the issue with and request the Karnataka Chief Minister to drop the charges against the Maharashtra Home Minister.
On a day, when leaders and members cutting across the party lines condemned the Karnataka Government for registering a case against Patil for his alleged provocative speech, the Chief Minister said, “If the State legislature wishes, I am not averse to meeting the Prime Minister again or leading an all-party delegation on the boundary dispute”.
An FIR was registered against Patil by the Belgaum police on April 10 for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups through
his speech on Belgaum, a bone of contention between the two States.
The FIR was registered under Sections 153(A) of IPC for provoking and creating disharmony between communities on the basis of religion, race, place of birth and
language under the Representation of People Act.
The case related to a provocative speech allegedly delivered by Patil at a function organised here on Sunday to celebrate the birthday of Kiran Thakur, leader of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES) and editor of Marathi daily “Tarun Bharat”.
Earlier, initiating a debate on the issue in the Assembly, labour Minister Hassan Mushrif condemned the Karnataka Government’s act of registering a case against Patil.
Mushrif said that the Karnataka government had over the years suppressed the voice of the Marathi-speaking people in Belgaum and 765 others villages located in the border of the two States.
Shiv Sena’s group leader Subhash Desai said the
FIR was not just an insult of RR Patil but that of the
entire Maharashtra.