First beaten and now punished. This is the story of Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi, who was thrashed by five MlAs inside the premises of the Maharashtra Assembly.
Now the same cop has been suspended till the departmental inquiry into the incident is completed. Breaking the deadlock in the State Assembly over the suspension of five MlAs, the Congress-led DF Government on Monday ordered the suspension of the traffic police and set up a seven-member legislators’ committee to probe the assault on him by legislators on the Vidhan Bhavan premises last week.
Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil made twin announcements, after members cutting the party lines forced six noisy adjournments in the State Assembly over their demand for action against Suryavanshi, and a city court released the two arrested MlAs — booked for assault on the traffic police officer — on bail.
In a suo moto statement made after the Opposition disrupted the proceedings in the lower House for most part of the day, Patil said that the State Government had decided to suspend Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi for “misbehaving” with Bahujan Vikas Agadhi MlA Kshitij Thakur.
Suryavanshi had stopped Kshitij’s car on the Bandra-Worli Sea link on March 18 and fined him for travelling at a speed of 101 km per hour (kmph) on the crucial bridge, where the stipulated speed limit is 50 kmph. Kshitij had alleged later that Suryavanshi had “misbehaved” with him, despite him disclosing his identity.
Patil said he had watched the CD of the “verbal duel” Suryavanshi and Thakur had on Bandra-Worli sea link on March 18 and found prima facie that the police officer was “rude” in his conduct with the legislator.
“As per the preliminary inquiry by DCP SR Nilevad (DCP, Traffic-South), Suryavanshi was rude to Thakur, which is unbecoming of a police officer. He will be suspended till the completion of the inquiry,” Patil said.
Simultaneously, Patil announced the setting up 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 other members of the committee would be Dilip Sopal (Ind), Nawab Malik (NCP), Girish Bapat (BJP), R M Wani (Shiv Sena), Sadashiv Patil (Congress) and Uttamrao Dikle (MNS).
The thrashing of API Suryavanshi by a group of legislators in the Vidhan Bhavan premises on March 19 was a fallout of the Bandra-Worli Sea link incident. Following the assault on Suryavanshi, five MlAs -- Kshitij, Ram Kadam (MNS), Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena), Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent) and Jaykumar Rawal (BJP) were suspended on Wednesday till December 31, 2013.
Earlier in the day, two arrested MlAs -- Kshitij and Kadam - walked out of the Arthur Road jail, as the Metropolitan Magistrate UM Padwad granted them bail against a surety of Rs 15,000 each. The Magistrate observed that their custody was no longer required.