Assault on TMC official: Four NCP workers including Awhad’s PA arrested

The police on late Wednesday night arrested four Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers in connection with the alleged assault on assistant municipal commissioner Mahesh Aher

The police on late Wednesday night arrested four Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers in connection with the alleged assault on assistant municipal commissioner Mahesh Aher.

Thane, India - February, 16, 2023: In yesterday's Thane Municipal Corporation Assistant Commissioner Mahesh Aher assault case, Thane Municipal Corporation employees and officials worked under black tape today and gave a letter to Commissioner Abhijit Bangar, in Thane, India, on,Thursday, February, 16, 2023. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

They have been identified as Abhijit Pawar, Vikram Khamkar, Hemant Vani and Vishant Gaikwad. Based on a complaint by Aher, the police had also booked MLA Jitendra Awhad along with the four under various sections of Indian Penal Code.

“Thane sessions court on Thursday sent the accused to one-day police custody. One of them is Awhad’s personal assistant,” said Sanjay Dhumal, senior police inspector, Naupada police station.

On Wednesday evening, Aher was beaten up by a group of people outside the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) building. The incident occurred after an alleged audio clip surfaced in which Aher confessed to have planned to kill Awhad and his family. Aher purportedly said he had deployed a sharpshooter for the purpose with the help of gangster Babaji, alias Subhash Singh Thakur, who is lodged in Tihar jail.

Later, Aher said that since he had not heard the audio clip, he could not say whose voice was in it. “On January 5, I filed a complaint against a person at Naupada police station for threatening me to perform my duty. At that time, I had presented a pen drive which contained some audio clips. In one of the clips, the person claimed to have taken a supari of my murder and he could be heard taking Awhad’s name. The police arrested him.”

Aher in his complaint said that NCP workers Abhijit Pawar, Hemant Vani, Vikram Khamkar and two-three other unidentified persons approached him to kill him because of his January 5 complaint and the demolition of illegal constructions in Awhad’s constituency as well as for not listening to him.

The civic official is currently undergoing treatment at Jupiter hospital in Thane.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Awhad tweeted videos showing an aide of Aher counting cash in his cabin while Aher could be seen threatening an employee and daring him to go to the police against him. The NCP legislator also tweeted a letter Thane Congress leader Vikram Chavan had written to police commissioner Jaijeet Singh on June 3, 2021, alleging that Aher had links with the underworld. The letter also alleged that Babaji had issued veiled threats to Chavan asking him not to target Aher.

Thane City Congress general secretary Sachin Shinde said in a statement that the party did not support the assault but demanded a probe into Awhad’s allegations against Aher.

Expressing solidarity with Aher, TMC employees wore black ribbons and submitted a memorandum to commissioner Abhijit Bangar.