Father, son arrested over ‘no-Marathi’ stance in soc

A 35-year-old Maharashtrian woman was allegedly denied office space and manhandled in a Mulund West housing society in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: Mumbai’s cosmopolitan spirit is often challenged when divisive practices among home owners and housing societies surface with tenants and buyers. The insider-outsider lore was reinforced when a 35-year-old woman was allegedly denied office space and manhandled in a Mulund West housing society on Wednesday afternoon, as she is Maharashtrian.

Father, son arrested over ‘no-Marathi’ stance in soc

A video of the spat recorded by the woman and a separate one where she spoke about discrimination was posted on social media subsequently.

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On Thursday, a police complaint was filed and Mulund police booked 80-year-old Praveenchandra Tanna, and his 55-year-old son Nilesh Tanna, the building’s secretary, for allegedly barring Trupti Deorukhkar, who sought to rent a 150 square feet space in Shiv Sadan building, to run her digital marketing and social media venture. The duo was booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC and later released on bail.

According to police, Deorukhkar had identified the space through an online search. The one-room-kitchen space she was looking to rent belongs to one Paresh Anam, who was known to her. Anam kept the house key with a first-floor resident, a tailor, who showed her the space and a few shops which are also given on rent. While she was seeing the premises, the senior Tanna approached them and conversed with the tailor in Gujarati. As Deorukhkar does not follow the language, she asked the elderly gentleman to repeat the conversation.

“He replied saying they do not rent spaces to Maharashtrians in the building. He said it was a rule in the society. When I asked him to show me the written rule, Tanna became annoyed and started screaming,” Deorukhkar told HT.

“‘Aap ko jaha jana hai jao, police me complaint karo, mera koi kuch nahi bigad sakta (go wherever you want, lodge a complaint with the police, no one can do me any harm),’ he had allegedly told her,” said the police.

After the altercation, as she and her husband tried to leave the premises, his son, Nilesh intervened to enquire about the argument. “As we started narrating the matter to him, his father returned to scream and verbally abuse us. I was trying to record a video but Nilesh interrupted it by snatching away my phone. I could not call the police right away either,” she said. “The altercation went out of hand and the duo physically assaulted by husband. Soon people gathered around us and diffused the situation.”

Later on Thursday, soon after she posted the videos online, activists of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) intervened and questioned the Tannas. Based on Deorukhkar’s statement, police registered a case against the two and arrested them. They were released on bail, as all the charges levelled against them were bailable, said senior inspector Kantilal Kothambire of the Mulund police station.

Ram Nagare, an executive committee member of Shiv Sadan, however denied allegations that Maharashtrians are ostracised by the society. “There is no such rule and the society proudly houses people from different communities; and we live harmoniously,” he said. “Take my instance -- I am Maharashrian and a committee member.”