Mumbai: BJP’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha, others acquitted of unlawful protest during pandemic

A magistrate court in Girgaum on Thursday acquitted BJP’s Mumbai unit chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha and four others associated with the party in a case lodged at Gaondevi police station last year for protesting against the civic body at its D Ward office premises by violating prohibitory orders.

The court stated in its order while acquitting them that the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Metropolitan Magistrate Nadeem Patel said that the incident had occurred in the daytime at a public place where independent witnesses are easily available, but none had been examined. This creates a doubt in the story of the prosecution, it said.

The magistrate further said that a police witness had deposed before it that the incident was video recorded and remarked that the video recording was not produced before it by the investigating officer. No justified reason was given for not producing it either, the court stated. It also questioned that while the prosecution claims that 30 to 40 persons were present on the spot protesting, why the chargesheet is filed only against five persons. Further, it said the witnesses were not sure of the number of persons present at the spot and said they could identify only two or three, which the court called a vague statement.

The protest had taken place on Sep 2, 2021, at the civic body’s D ward office premises where the BJP leaders and party workers had raised slogans against the BMC. The police had received information that there would be a protest and had handed a notice to Lodha not to proceed with it as there are prohibitory orders in place, but they had allegedly gone ahead with the protest. They had been booked for unlawful assembly and under provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act among other offences.