PIL filed against MVA ministers for protesting against Nawab Malik's arrest
India Today
The PIL mentioned that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi ministers and political leaders committed offences of unlawful assembly, breach of peace.
A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Bombay High Court prayed for an FIR to be registered against various Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministers and political leaders who had staged a protest against the arrest of Maharshtra minister Nawab Malik.
The Enforcement directorate (ED) had arrested Malik on February 23 on charges of allegedly purchasing a property at a rate lower than market value from underworld fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar 20 years ago and had thus funded terrorism. Malik is still in the custody of the central agency.
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After Malik's arrest on February 23, various political leaders from the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, while stating that the arrest was illegal, held a protest next to Mantralay before the Mahatma Gandhi statue on February 24.
The petition filed by a social worker from Pune, Hemant Patil, stated that Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and various other state ministers sat on a dharna to protest. Pawar was the first to reach the protest site, followed by home minister Dilip Walse Patil, housing minister Jitendra Awhad, health minister Rajesh Tope, water resources minister Jayant Patil, food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal, minister of state for tourism Aditi Tatkare, revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar, PWD minister Ashok Chavan, sports minister Sunil Kedar, textiles minister Aslam Shaikh, MoS Home Satej Patil, NCP MP Supriya Sule, state women's commission chairperson Rupali Chakankar, state industries minister Subhash Desai and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar.
Patil's petition stated that the protest was illegal as "it was nothing but law being taken by them (protestors) in their own hands." He stated that in Mumbai, there is a designated area, Azad Maidan, for people to protest. All types of demonstrations, morchas, dharnas, agitations, programmes, mute agitations, etc, in South Mumbai, except at Azad Maidan, are banned. This is done to maintain public order in the city, reminded the petition.
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