Mumbai: A magistrate court in the city has acquitted state cabinet minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha among nine others of the BJP in a 2020 case of unlawful assembly and obstructing traffic during a protest in 2020. They were protesting against the civic body and its Sion Hospital for an incident where bodies were interchanged in its morgue during the pandemic. A detailed judgment is yet to be made available.
Sept 15 incident
Along with Lodha and Darekar, among those acquitted is MLA Captain Tamil Selvan. As per the police FIR, the incident happened on Sep 15 that year. 20 to 25 workers of the party had gathered at the hospital premises. Tamil Selvan had decided to submit a memorandum to the administration of the hospital regarding the untoward incident.
The protesters had begun sloganeering against the municipal corporation and the hospital with party flags. In some time, another group of BJP workers came into the hospital premises with Darekar to submit a memorandum. The hospital's dean had arrived at the spot to collect the memorandum, but they insisted for a higher official or threatened to block a road and close Mumbai. Senior police officers from Sion police station tried to pacify the protesters but the party workers did not pay heed and blocked a road for around 30 minutes, disturbing traffic proceeding from South Mumbai to the suburbs. The police had also alleged that the protesters were not wearing masks and thus not following pandemic protocols.
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