MUMBAI, 6 January 2008 — The working president of the Shiv Sena, Udhav Thackeray on Friday once again accused the migrants for defaming Mumbai and giving it a bad name.
He was referring to the Juhu molestation case on Jan. 1, in which 14 people were arrested on charges of molesting two non-resident Indian girls in the early hours of the morning after a New Year celebration, opposite J.W. Mariott Hotel in Juhu. Most of the arrested were Marathi language speaking youths.
Udhav lambasted the state Home Department for its alleged failure to maintain law and order and said that the Sena will not tolerate atrocities against women, “The police should have paraded the accused in the case. If they are unable to do that, they should hand them over to us,” Udhav said.
Condemning the molestation incident, the Sena leader said that the photographers, who had captured the incident in their cameras should have also used them as weapons to hit the molesters to save the vulnerable women.
Udhav said “If the police or government cannot take action against these culprits then the Sena and BJP will take up the responsibility of punishing them by parading them through the city.”
Reacting to the Udhav’s statement, Congress party spokesman Sanjay Nirupam said that criminals don’t belong to any community, class or caste, they need to be punished for their crimes. “It would be totally unfair to hold migrants responsible for the disgracing incident. It is not correct to politicize such issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, in order to conduct speedy trials in the molestation case, the state government will approach the Bombay High Court for setting up fast track court, in order to secure maximum punishments for the culprits.
The state deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil said yesterday that the molestation of the two girls by New Year “revelers” would be thoroughly investigated and that the culprits would be punished strictly without wasting anytime.
“We would request the high court to try the cases in fast track courts for speedy trials. We will also write to the federal government for making provisions in the law to enhance punishment for such offences,” Patil added.
