MUMBAI: A division bench of the Bombay High Court yesterday came down heavily on the Maharashtra government and rapped it strongly for failing to take action against the Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers.
The high court bench judges, Justice J.N. Patel and Justice K.K. Tatod, taking cognizance of a writ petition filed by Viren Shah, president of the Mumbai Businessmen Association (MBA) against the compulsory putting up shop hoarding in Marathi language by the MNS, took the state government to task and said as to why the state government and the police had dithered from taking action against the MNS workers who had taken the laws into their hands over the issue of putting up shop name boards in Marathi language.
“The Mumbai police which claims proudly of arresting the alleged terrorists that triggered bomb blasts in the country, but then why can’t they be able to arrest the roadside goons? It does not appear that the state government is interested to take necessary action to tame these goons of the MNS. Therefore at least now wake up from the deep slumber and take necessary and immediate steps to stop the injustice,” the judges said.
Coming heavily on the state Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil, the judges said “Patil has warned Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) K.L. Prasad for his comments ‘Mumbai does not belong to anyone’s father.’ If the state home minister does not stand behind the police and support them, then how the police would work,” the judges asked the government lawyer.
The judges said that the government was directed to file affidavit into the writ petition in the matter, but the court was not satisfied with the affidavit filed in the court during yesterday’s hearing. The court asked the government to file a new affidavit within three weeks again.
In another development, family members of Mohammed Sadik Shaikh, a software programmer, who was arrested along with four others on Wednesday by the Mumbai crime branch police on alleged charges of being founder member of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahedeen, claimed that he was innocent and that the police had implicated him in false cases.
The Mumbai police had claimed that Mohammed Sadik Shaikh was the mastermind behind the several blasts in the country since the year 2005 and that he had visited a hostile neighboring country, an indirect reference to Pakistan, on two occasions for training in terrorist activities.
Mohammed Azad, the elder brother of Sadik, said that his brother was innocent and that the police had falsely implicated him. Azad denied that his younger brother was in any way ever involved with Indian Mujahedeen or any other terror outfit.
