Gun-wielding minister hunts for leopard, finds controversy

TRIGGER HAPPY: Now, opposition guns for BJP’s Girish Mahajan

Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan has courted controversy by allegedly wielding a gun while accompanying a search team looking for a leopard, which is believed to have killed a woman in Jalgaon district. As the purported video of the minister’s gun-wielding act went viral, he said his intention was not to harm the feline, but to scare it away.

But the opposition -- Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -- has demanded resignation of Girish Mahajan, minister for medical education, after a video showing him trying to hunt down a man-eater leopard in Jalgaon along with forest department officials going viral.

“The minister had been seen flaunting gun in public earlier also. It is not good for a minister to do so. He has misused the gun given to him for self-protection and violated the wildlife act. He needs to be kicked out of the cabinet and prosecuted for violating the law,” said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant suggested that the minister wants to act like a hero and hence needs to be freed of his charge as a minister and sent to Hollywood.

“The minister had recently unwittingly advised a sugar factory to name liquor brands after women for higher sales. Earlier he had flaunted his gun in front of school kids. He had also allegedly threatened legislator with his gun. He is zero in his work as irrigation minister and hence performs stunts like these to show himself as a hero. But, he has violated law in the bid and hence needs to be sacked and sent to Hollywood,” Sawant said.

Meanwhile, while explaining the incident that took place on Monday, Mahajan said, “The man-eater leopard was spotted barely 400 feet away from my convoy after which I decided to go after him.”

“The leopard has killed five people in the district in the past one-and-a-half months. On Monday, I visited the families of the people killed by the leopard. On my way, the forest officials sighted the leopard and so we decided to chase it down. Being a legislator, I wanted to participate in the operation, instead of sitting safely in my car,” the minister added.

Earlier too, the minister had courted controversy after he had carried a gu on his person while on an inspection of a school for physically challenged kids.