Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Ruckus at multiplex: Awhad and 10 other NCP cadre held
THANE: Former housing minister Jitendra Awhad and the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Thane president Anand Paranjpe were among the 11 people arrested on Friday for allegedly cancelling the latenight show of a Marathi movie on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at a city multiplex on November 7. They will be produced in a court on Saturday.
Calling it a political vendetta, more than 200 NCP workers gathered outside Vartak Nagar police station. They even clashed with the personnel posted outside the station and tried to stop the car of the deputy commissioner of police from exiting the compound.
On Monday night, Awhad along with hundreds of party workers barged into a mall screening Har Har Mahadev and forcefully stopped the show, alleging that the film had distorted the history of Chatrapati Shivaji to create a political hype.
The next day, the Vartak Nagar police registered an FIR, based on a complaint filed by one Parikshit Durve, against the NCP MLA and 100 other party workers for voluntarily causing hurt and showing criminal force.
Awhad was called to the police station on Friday and was later arrested. The other accused have been identified as Paranjpe, Ajay Sakpal, Ravindra
Palav, Nitin Patil, Samir Pendhare, Ajit Sawant, Samir Netake, Chetan Dalavi, Sanket Narane, and Kailas Dhavale.
Durve, who was at the theatre when the incident occurred, could not be reached for a comment.
NCP hits out at govt
NCP MP Supriya Sule, while lambasting the Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government, said the party wanted to know who was putting pressure on the police to arrest Awhad.
“Even if we have to go to jail, we will go but the people of Maharashtra will not tolerate the insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We are proud of Awhad,” Sule said.