Mumbai: The SUV in which Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) MLA and former minister Jitendra Awhad was travelling was attacked by three lathi-weilding men on P.D'Mello Road when the vehicle was about to enter the Eastern Freeway on Thursday evening. The attackers also flund a large stone at the moving vehicle.
Avhad was at the centre of a recent controversy when he passed remarks against former Rajya Sabha MP Sambhaji Chhatrapati. The incident had its repercussions in Thane, where Awhad lives near Jupiter Hospital, when a large number of his supporters staged an impromptu "rasta roko" on the Eastern Express Highway which caused a massive traffic jam. Video shots showed that the police did not take stringent action against the protestors immediately.
According to sources, three people attacked his SUV with sticks and threw stones. It is not clear how the attackers knew that Awhad's vehicle would be reaching the spot near the entrance of the Eastern Freeway at a partcular time. The probability of the vehicle being kept under watch is not ruled out. The attackers fled the scene. The Dongri police have registered an FIR against unknown persons.
Interestingly, the protestors also chanted slogans in support of Sambhaji Chhatrapati who had adopted a strong stance against encroachments at the historic Vishalgad fort in Kolhapur. Following the removal of the encroachments, communal violence had broken out in Vishalgadh and the matter had reached Bombay high court too.
Earlier, Awhad had held Sambhaji Chhatrapati responsible for the violence at Vishalgad Fort in Kolhapur which ensued following the demolition of illegal structures apparently belonging to one community.
Talking to reporters, Awhad also said Kolhapur's Congress MP Shahu Chhatrapati, father of Sambhaji Chhatrapati, was not happy with the violence. "If Sambhaji Chhatrapati is a descendant (of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj) by birth, I am a descendant by ideology," Awhad said.
Violence had broken out on July 14 after activists of Hindu outfits led by Sambhaji Chhatrapati were halted at the base of the Vishalgadh fort by the police for violating prohibitory orders. The marchers had demanded the demolition of the illegal structures.
