Police was under pressure, says NCP after MLA’s arrest

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday after the Thane police arrested party’s senior leader Jitendra Awhad for disrupting a Marathi movie on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on Wednesday.

NCP MP Supriya Sule, while lambasting the Shinde-Fadnavis government, said the party wanted to know who was putting pressure on the police to arrest Awhad and stressed they will not tolerate insult to Shivaji Maharaj.

The home department comes under the deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. “Even if we have to go to jail, we will go but Maharashtra will not tolerate the insult to

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We are proud of Jitendra Awhad if he is going to jail for this,” Sule said in response to Awhad’s arrest.

“The way Awhad was arrested by calling him to the police station, it cannot be denied that the police are under tremendous pressure,” she added, alleging that the NCP leader was arrested owing to the political pressure.

She also said that they will fight this battle with full force and questioned the government’s belief towards the Maratha ruler.

“This government should answer whose side it is. If you are against Chhatrapati then make it clear, then we will fight this battle on our own and with full force.”

NCP workers staged a protest against Awhad’s arrest in Thane.

The police also used lathi charge when they were taking the former housing minister to the hospital for medical check-up.

Awhad was arrested on Friday by Thane’s Vartak Nagar police in connection with a rioting case registered against him on charges of disrupting a late-night screening of the Marathi movie ‘Har Har Mahadev’ at Thane’s Viviana Mall multiplex on November 7.

Awhad called his arrest an “abuse of power” by the police. In a post on Twitter, Awhad alleged he was called by the police to pick up a notice on Friday, but when he reached the station, the police detained him.

This the second incident in the last five days when NCP is being seen in direct confrontation with the Shinde-Fadnavis government.