Trying to keep aside 13% posts for Marathas in police recruitment: Deshmukh

The Uddhav Thackeray-led government is making all efforts to reserve as much as 13 per cent of the 12,500 vacant positions of the Maharashtra Police for the Maratha community, said State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Sunday.

"In the ongoing recruitment of 12,500 police personnel, we are trying to keep 13 per cent seats reserved for Maratha community while taking all legal aspects into consideration. The recruitment process has been going on for the last 2 months," Deshmukh said while speaking to the media.

He informed that around 25 to 30 lakh applicants are expected to appear which is likely to take four to five months. "We will make sure that the Maratha community does not face any injustice," he added.

For the last few days, several parts of Maharashtra have been witnessing protests against the Supreme Court stay on reservations in government jobs and college admissions for Marathas.

Responding to the Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, he said that it was the Centre's right to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"In this case, the Central government took the decision to hand over the case to the CBI and it is their right to do so. The top court also observed that the Maharashtra Police had handled the case very professionally and were doing well," he said.