‘Marathi-speaking outsiders’ also attacked Marathi family in Kalyan society

Vaishali Garud, one of the managing committee members of the society, said that residents had never had any differences over religion, region, caste, etc, earlier

Mumbai: While Akhilesh Shukla, the Maharashtra government employee who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Marathi family in Kalyan, is a north Indian, his accomplices who were involved in the violence were Maharashtrians, according to a family member of the injured Deshmukh family.

Kalyan,india-December 20 2024 : Pic: In the YogiDham area of Kalyan, a shocking incident occurred where Akhilesh Shukla, an official working with MTDC, allegedly led a group of 10 to 15 goons in a deadly assault on a Marathi family. In protest against this attack, banners have been put up across the Yogi Dham area, and local Marathi residents held a march with hundreds of participants under the Azmera Heights building. The protesters have warned that if the assailant is not arrested, the traders' associations in the Yogi Dham area will observe a shutdown. Meanwhile, the Kalyan Khadakpada police have registered cross-complaints related to the incident. Senior Police Inspector Ambarnath Waghmode of Khadakpada Police Station has stated that appropriate action has been taken. Pic.On Friday .in India on 20 2024 - Story By Atik Sir (Photo by Pramod Tambe)

“The outsiders who attacked us were all Maharashtrians,” said Monali Deshmukh, the sister-in-law of the injured Abhijit Deshmukh. “We could understand this from their language fluency.”

Recounting the incident, Monali Deshmukh said that on the evening of December 18, an argument broke out between Shukla’s family and their neighbours, the Kalavikattes, over the placement of incense sticks outside their flat. As smoke from the incense sticks was entering the Kalvikattes’ flat, they requested the Shuklas to place them inside their house, she said. A heated brawl ensued, wherein Akhilesh Shukla allegedly remarked that Marathi people are filthy as they eat meat and seafood. That’s when the Deshmukh family, who also live on the same floor in Kalyan’s Ajmera Heights I, intervened to diffuse the situation.

“All of us then went to our respective homes, assuming everything had calmed down,” said Monali Deshmukh. However, Shukla then allegedly called 8-10 people from elsewhere and knocked on the Deshmukhs’ and Kalvikattes’ doors. This purportedly led to a violent fight, in which Abhijit Deshmukh and his brother, Dhiraj, were injured.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Vaishali Garud, one of the managing committee members of the society, said that residents had never had any differences over religion, region, caste, etc, earlier. “We have been residing as a single unit and celebrate every festival together,” she said.

A look at the nameplates of the 12-storey building shows that the 48 flats have people from across India, such as Biswas, Soni, Singh, Pillai, Chandnani, Ahuja, and D’Silva. On the night of the brawl, children were rehearsing dance steps in the society’s compound for the upcoming week-long Christmas-New Year’s celebration, said Sunanda Sonawne, wife of the society’s chairman. “Abusing the Maharashtrians is absolutely wrong. It shouldn’t have happened,” she said.

Residents want harmony within their premises and not division based on north Indian versus Marathi, said Garud. “We are for a peaceful living and not division of residents based on regionalism as done by political outfits. But had the support of political parties not been there, the police would have never agreed to file a First Information Report against Shukla and the outsiders. We are thankful to them,” she added.

Residents also claimed that there have been instances of arguments in the past among the neighbours, including when the Shukla family were getting their home renovated and encroached on the lift lobby by placing a shoe rack with a sitting area.

Hindustan Times attempted to reach out to the Shukla family at their flat, but no one answered the doorbell. In a recorded video, prior to his surrender, Akhilesh Shukla alleged that his neighbours had started the ruckus by calling him north Indian and pulling his wife’s hair.

The police have named Shukla and his wife Geeta, among others, in the FIR. The charges against the accused include assault or using criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, and unlawful assembly, among others.