The day after Mumbai's Dindoshi Court issued notice to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, directing him to remain present before it on January 5 over Amazon's plea, the party workers on Friday vandalised the e-commerce giant's office in Pune's Kondhwa and a warehouse in Mumbai's Chandivali.
"Our party workers targeted offices of Amazon. There is a lot of anger over a notice being issued to Rajsaheb asking him to be present in court. Officials of Amazon are not even willing to speak or discuss our demand of including Marathi in their app. They directly went to court," Santosh Dhuri, an MNS worker, told The Print.
The case pertains to a plea filed by Amazon against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and its affiliate (workers' union) which had allegedly threatened to block the firm's operations in Mumbai if it did not include Marathi as one of the preferred languages on its mobile application or website. The party workers had also allegedly torn Amazon's posters as its app doesn't have Marathi language option.
In October, MNS office-bearer Akhil Chitre had threatened to agitate against the e-commerce giant for not including Marathi as a language option on their apps. Reportedly, the party workers had also met the company’s representatives and had been assured that they are working on introducing Marathi language option on the app. However, Amazon did nothing and instead filed a case in the court, said an MNS leader said.
On December 13, plaintiff's (the company) lawyer Akshay Purkar had told the court that the MNS and its workers were threatening the plaintiff and resorting to unfair labour trade practices by inciting its employees through their "arm-twisting tactics".
After hearing brief arguments, the court noted that protection is required to be given (to the company and its staff). It appears that protection is required to be given for the working of the plaintiff company, otherwise, there will be a disturbance in their business activities, the court had said.
The court had restrained the MNS and its activists from obstructing the plaintiff or its employees from working at the e-commerce firm's site or disturbing its business activities.
(With PTI inputs)
