By IANS,
Mumbai : A social activist Monday filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court seeking a probe into the assault of a police officer allegedly by a group of five legislators in the state legislature premises March 19.
The PIL, filed by Rashtriya Bhrashtachar Virodhi Janashakti president Hemant Patil, sought an inquiry to be conducted either by the state director-general of police or any other agency.
It also asked for payment of compensation to the assaulted police officer Assistant Police Inspector (Traffic) Sachin Suryawanshi.
Patil urged the court to quash the privilege motion moved in the assembly against two Marathi TV channel editors, IBN Lokmat’s Nikhil Wagle and ABP Majha’s Rajiv Khandekar, pertaining to their coverage of the assault.
The petition sought the court’s direction to the government to produce relevant records of the assault by Independent legislators Kshitij Thakur and Pradeep Jaiswal, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)’s Ram Kadam, Shiv Sena’s Rajan Salvi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Jaykumar Rawal.
The PIL is likely to come up for hearing next week, Patil said.
The provocation for the attack was that Suryawanshi slapped a penalty on Kshitij Thakur for overspeeding on the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Patil added.
Buying peace with legislators who disrupted proceedings of the assembly over the last week demanding action against the officer, Home Minister R.R. Patil announced suspension of Suryawanshi for “misbehaving” with Kshitij Thakur.
In a related development, Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil Monday announced a probe into the incident.
A committee headed by Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) MLA and ex-minister Ganpatrao Deshmukh and comprising Sadashiv Patil (Congress), Nawab Malik (Nationalist Congress Party), Girish Bapat (BJP), R.M. Wani (Shiv Sena), Uttam Dikhle (MNS) and Independent Dilip Sopal, has been appointed to probe the incident.
The speaker requested the committee chairman to submit its report at the earliest possible date.
Among the terms of references are whether the suspension of the five legislators accused of thrashing the police official should be revoked or not.