Sena calls for 'Nagpur bandh' today

Sena calls for 'Nagpur bandh' today
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, JUNE 28: The Shiv Sena has given a call for a 'Nagpur bandh' on Thursday in protest against the police lathi-charge on Shiv Sainiks in the city on Monday.

Former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition in the state legislative assembly Narayan Rane charged that the city police had resorted to lathi-charge on Sena activists at the behest of Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who also holds the Home portfolio.

Describing the police action as ``brutal, inhuman and unjustified at a press conference here on Tuesday, Rane said, ``Bhujbal's antipathy to Sena is all too known and the Nagpur police resorted to lathi-charge at his behest just to demoralise Shiv Sainiks.''

Blaming deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Dahate, for the action, he demanded a judicial probe into the incident and appropriate action against the police officers responsible for the police action.

The Leader of the Opposition threatened that the Sena would not allow the conduct of the ensuing monsoon assembly session at Mumbai smoothly till the government takes appropriate action against the guilty police-officials.

In reply to a query on the silence of Sena's Alliance partner, BJP, on the incident, Rane said, ``It is purely upto them.'' However, doubts have been expressed in political circles here on the success of the `bandh' call, given the silence of the BJP on the issue.

The Police resorted to lathi-charge on a Shiv Sena morcha near the Collectorate on Monday afternoon following attempts by some Sena activists to break a police barricade. Over 100 persons, including 25 police personnel, were injured in the lathi-charge.

The morcha was taken out to the district collectorate to press for various demands, including lifting of the ban on recruitment in government jobs, compensation to farmers whose lands have been acquired for irrigation projects and an uninterrupted power supply to farmers in the region.

Rane, who had a talk on the issue with Commissioner of Police B N Mishra and District Collector Manu Kumar Srivastava, was told that the Sena activists had ridiculed some policewomen and had pelted stones at the force, which had prompted the police force to start the lathi-charge.

However, the Sena leader dismissed this police version claiming that the mob was peaceful and not a single police personnel were injured in the incident. ``I have been in the Mayo Hospital here and enquired with the doctors on the admission of injured police personnel. I got a negative answer,'' he said and pointed out that the police should have resorted to firing of teargas shells and such other means before resorting to lathi-charge.

Rane alleged that such incidents only displayed the loss of the state government over the police force. ``How can you expect a balanced police force when postings are being made through bribery,'' he commented.

He ridiculed the Democratic Front (DF) Government, particularly its Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, for going on a foreign tour when the state was facing an acute financial crisis.

Rane, who air-dashed this morning from Mumbai, visited the Mayo hospital and met the injured Shiv Sainiks and enquired about their health.