The state government seems to have two different yardsticks while dealing with offences against the members of allies of the ruling party and the opposition. Less than 24 hours after a civic engineer attached to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was allegedly assaulted and threatened, the Mumbai police registered an offence under sections 114, 332,34,353, 504 and 506 (2) of the IPC against five people including Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator and former minister Anil Parab on Tuesday.
However, independent legislator Geeta Jain who has lent her support to the ruling party had continued to remain off the hook for nearly a week for her involvement in a similar incident in which she slapped a junior engineer Shubham Patil, attached to ward number six of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) on June 20. However, according to latest development, Shubham Patil and his colleague Sanjay Soni had withdrawn the complaint they had filed against Jain for slapping Patil. However, no action was taken against her even after six days had elapsed after a complaint was filed against her.
Delay in registering an offence the complaint for which was withdrawn
Earlier, senior police inspector Sandip Kadam had confirmed that an FIR was yet to be registered; but detailed investigation was on into the matter. Former BJP MLA Narendra Mehta had expressed surprise that such a serious incident affecting the morale of officers was being taken so lightly. In a cosmetic damage control action, the MBMC has shunted out assistant civic chief, Sachin Bachhav who headed ward number six. Bachhav was not available for comment.
Shiv Sena UBT takes out morcha
On the other hand, the Shiv Sena (UBT) functionaries led by Parab took out a morcha at the H-East ward of the BMC on Monday to register their protest over the demolition of a shakha (party office) even as pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray were there on the party office board in Bandra.
