AAP leader accuses party colleagues of making casteist remarks

Mumbai: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Kamble-Baperkar has alleged that his fellow party members made casteist remarks against him and other colleagues during a party meeting on March 10

Mumbai: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Kamble-Baperkar has alleged that his fellow party members made casteist remarks against him and other colleagues during a party meeting on March 10.

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Kamble-Baprekar registered a complaint against 25 party members, including Mumbai president of the party Preeti Sharma Menon and member Manu Pillai at Andheri police station on Saturday.

As per the complaint, Kamble-Baperkar was attending a meeting with the party officials at their city head office at Chakala, Andheri East on March 10.

Earlier, there had been a couple of instances like improper management of an event on February 23 when Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Maan were to arrive in the city had already created a tense atmosphere within the party, he said.

He also spoke of another instance in which the city party chief felt that he and some of his close aides within the party were conspiring against her.

During the meeting on March 10, Preeti Sharma Menon started making remarks about the complainant saying his mentality was low and he was from a lower caste. Kamble-Baperkar alleged that she also used other casteist words.

“There was a lot of chaos after this. Some other people who were present even started physically and verbally assaulting me. When I tried to leave the office, I realised the door was blocked by some heavy chairs,” the complainant told the police. The way things happened made him feel like the whole episode was preplanned, he added.

A police official said that they had booked the people named by the complainant for rioting, assault, and wrongfully restraining a person under relevant sections of the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Further investigation into the case was underway.