MBVV top cop shunted over ‘mishandling’ of MNS-Sena(UBT) rally

Sources in the Maharashtra home department said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was not happy with the local police for denying permission for the march.

MUMBAI: The state government has transferred Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police commissioner Madhukar Pandey, a day after protesters led by the MNS and Shiv Sena (UBT) marched in large numbers through the streets of Mira Road, inflaming tensions amid the raging language row in the state.

MNS party workers had called the protest to counter a stir organised by traders after a local shop owner was recently thrashed by MNS workers for refusing to speak in Marathi at Mira-Bhayandar in Thane near Mumbai. ( Satish Bate/Hindustan Times)

Sources in the state home department said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the department, was not happy with the local police for denying permission for the march after the organisers refused to alter their route, as instructed by the police.

“There was no reason to deny permission when there is no culture of denying permission for any rightful protest. The leadership was upset as the police commissioner did not inform the home minister that he had denied permission, nor did he consult the director general of police,” said a senior official from the home department.

Pandey has been transferred as additional director general of police (administration) with the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), switching places with Niket Kaushik.

Tuesday’s march, led by the MNS and Sena (UBT), took place even though the MBVV police had refused permission and made preventive arrests. The rally, pushing the cause of the Marathi Manoos, was a reaction to a protest march by Mira Road’s traders last week, after a local shop owner was slapped and punched by MNS workers for not speaking in Marathi. As part of their protest, the MNS demanded an apology from the Mira Road trading community, populated largely by Gujaratis and Marwaris, accusing them of “disrespecting Marathi”.

MBVV police had told the MNS and Sena (UBT) they would permit the march if they would alter its route, as it was to pass by the sweet shop, whose owner the MNS had attacked on June 30. But when the number of protesters swelled as they assembled at Balaji Circle, the rally’s starting point, police were overwhelmed. The protesters, comprising party workers, local leaders and locals, marched anyway, leaving the police on the back foot.

The two protest marches in Mira Road have taken place after the MNS and Sena (UBT), claiming to be torchbearers of Marathi pride, got the BJP-led Fadnavis government to back down on introducing Hindi as the third language in primary schools in the state.

Pandey is an IPS officer of the 1996 batch and was appointed as commissioner of the MBVV police on December 14, 2022. Claiming the transfer is routine, the home department said Pandey has been transferred as he had completed his term. Incidentally, even though the police commissioners of Navi Mumbai and Thane have completed their terms, they continue to occupy their posts.

Neither Pandey nor Kaushik responded to calls and text messages from HT, for their comment.