Maha panel goes soft on legislators, suggests probe against police officer

SI Sachin Suryavanshi was allegedly slapped by some legislators

A legislative committee chaired by a senior legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh has suggested that an investigation be carried out against the assistant sub inspector Sachin Suryavanshi who was allegedly slapped by some legislators and had behaved objectionably. The Deshmukh-led five member committee was mandated to study the attack on the police officer and also alleged rough language used by the former against the legislator.

In the wake of assault on the police officer in the premises of state legislature, the five legislators including Kshitij Thakur (Bahujan Vikas Aghadi), Ram Kadam (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena), Pradeep Jaiswal (associate member Shiv Sena), Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena) and Jaikumra Rawal (BJP) were suspended. Although, Thakur and Kadam were arrested and now released on bail.

The committee has recommended that the suspension of Jaiswal, Salvi and Rawal be revoked with immediate effect while the suspension of Kadam and Thakur would continue till future decision.

Last month, Suryavanshi stopped the car of legislator Kshitij Thakur for speeding on the Bandra-Worli sea link. The next day, he was summoned to the Maharashtra Assembly and was attacked there. The committee assigned to investigate the incident say that his injuries were not serious. The government has already suspended Suryavanshi  for "being rude and misbehaving" with the politician whose car he had stopped.