They also burnt an effigy of Sapkale before submitting a memorandum to the district collector.

With gags over their mouths, the women marched from the Mahila Mandal office to the district collector's office in Baliram Peth.

Some carried placards condemning the Mumbai High Court's November 3 decision which acquitted Sapkale of the rape and blackmail charges filed against him.Women's organisations have also demanded that he be externed as he ``posed a threat'' to local women.

In the scandal that rocked the state more than four years ago, ten cases were registered against Sapkale of which he was acquitted in eight by Special Judge Mridula Bhatkar due to lack of evidence. He was convicted in the remaining two cases and sentenced to 10 and seven years' rigorous imprisonment. However, the appeal in the HighCourt reversed his fate.

Sapkale was accused of raping and blackmailing girls who approached him for help in 1994 when he was a Congress party member of the Jalgaon Municipal Council. The other accused in the sex racket included Raju Tadvi (Congress councillor) and Sanjay Pawar (son of former Congress MLC Murlidhar Pawar). Interestingly, the scandal came to light when Sapkale along with 15 others split the Congress party in the Jalgaon Municipal Council. Tadvi and Pawar were arrested but Sapkale managed to escape. He was later arrested from Billimora, Gujarat.

The police is planning preventive measures against Sapkale when he returns to his hometown.