After much delay, a ward officer in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), Prakash Kulkarni, has finally came forward to register a FIR against the mob which had abused and manhandled him in his office on 16, August.
Based on his complaint the Kashimira police has booked 39 people under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the IPC. However, no arrests have been made so far.
Accusing the ward officer and his colleagues of indulging in a binge session in the government property, the accused, which includes local MNS workers, had barged into the MBMC ward office in Ram Nagar and manhandled Kulkarni on August 16. The video clip of the incident had gone viral on social media platforms.
“Since it was a non-working day, we have officially written to the civic chief seeking a clarification on the purpose of their visit to the office, before pressing other charges,” confirmed Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Hazare. Although the officers denied the accusations of indulging in a binge-session, their blood samples had been sent for testing to ascertain whether they had been imbibing. Reports for the same are still awaited.
The officials claimed to have gathered at the office to draft a letter to the civic chief clarifying their stand on a recent incident in which a youth lost his life after falling into an open manhole in Mira Road on July 31. The concerned ward officer was under the police scanner for his alleged negligence in covering open manholes which had resulted in the youth’s death.
