Police confiscate placards, posters against MLA Geeta Jain

MUMBAI: The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MB-VV) police on Tuesday confiscated placards and posters being displayed by residents and citizen groups and disrupted their protests, which the protesters claimed was against hate speech durng a public event on March 12, which was attended by local MLA Geeta Jain and other local BJP functionaries

MUMBAI: The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MB-VV) police on Tuesday confiscated placards and posters being displayed by residents and citizen groups and disrupted their protests, which the protesters claimed was against hate speech durng a public event on March 12, which was attended by local MLA Geeta Jain and other local BJP functionaries.

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The protest, which was also a signature campaign was called #GetWellSoonGeetaJain. The police objected to the protesters naming the local MLA and confiscated the placards and posters stating that they were not allowed to use the name of the MLA. The citizens had held the protest on a busy junction where they were asking the locals to sign the letters protesting against the hate-speeches given in her presence.

Sadique Basha, one of the organisers, said that the police confiscated the postcards saying the MLA’s name was not to be used in the protests. “I was summoned to the police station and advised against using Geeta Jain’s name in the protest. On being asked why, the police told us that they will not be able to prevent any untoward incident from happening, if the MLA’s supporters turned up,” said Basha.

Sukhdev Banbanki, one of the other organisers and leader of AAP party in Mira Bhayandar, said “when leaders were making statements of love-jihad, land-jihad and even vegetable-jihad, Jain was present at the venue but did not stop such speeches which are being used to create rift between two communities.”

The protesters said that the protest was postponed from Sunday on the request of the police in view of the visit of Bageshwar Dham’s Dhirendra Shastri. The event was organised by Jain.

Banbanki expressed his dismay at the disruption saying the MLA uses her name and picture to invite citizens to events where hate speeches are given, and “we cannot use her name to protest against the hate speeches”.

“When Kajal Hindustani or the organisers of the event were making hate speeches, they were not stopped and no action was taken against them,” added Banbanki.

Commissioner of police, MB-VV and deputy commissioner of police of the zone were unavailable for comment. Jain, too, was unavailable for comment. Senior police inspector of Nayanagat police station said that he had just returned from leave and would find out what was going on.

Another police officer from Mira Road police station said that they had requested the organizers and they willingly handed over the placards and posters.