‘Either abnormal or…’: Uddhav reacts as Shinde calls Badlapur protests ‘politically motivated’

Shinde had also claimed that most protestors were not from Badlapur.

Published on: Aug 22, 2024, 15:37:59 IST

By HT News Desk, New Delhi

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Eknath Shinde's statement alleging ‘political motive’ behind the violent protests in Thane district's Badlapur over the alleged sexual assault of two four-year-old girls, is one that can only be made by an ‘abnormal person,’ ex-Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray remarked on Thursday.

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde (PTI Photo) and former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray (HT File Photo)

“Those who feel there is politics behind the Badlapur protest are either abnormal or protector of the culprits,” Thackeray said at a press conference without naming Shinde, Maharashtra's chief minister who succeeded him in the top post.

On Wednesday, a day after the violent stir, Shinde had also claimed that most of the protestors were 'not from Badlapur.'

At least 25 police personnel were injured in stone-pelting at the Badlapur railway station and other parts of the town during the protest. Eventually, police had to resort to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd occupying railway tracks for several hours.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), a three-party alliance of which Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) is a constituent along with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), will hold a state-wide bandh (shutdown) on Saturday to protest the Badlapur incident and the rise in crime against women in the state.

“There is no political motive behind the bandh. It is aimed at creating awareness that the security of women should be a priority. It also aims to awaken the government,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief stated in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, having taken suo motu cognisance of the incident, the Bombay high court, in a hearing on Wednesday, questioned the Maharashtra Police over its handling of the case. Also, the Maharashtra government has already announced that the accused, 23-year-old Akshay Shinde, a contractual cleaner in the girls' school, will be tried in a fast-track court; it also appointed senior lawyer Ujjawal Nikam as the special public prosecutor.

(With PTI inputs)

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