Shiv Sena corporator, his aides booked for extortion

Thane A Shiv Sena corporator from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) and around 20 of his supporters have been booked for allegedly manhandling a supervisor of a private contractor and demanding ₹1 lakh from him, an officer said on Thursday.

The corporator, Mahesh Gaikwad, and others were booked by Kolsewadi police station in Kalyan on Wednesday.

“On Wednesday , Gaikwad and his followers went to the site in Kalyan, where the supervisor and other staff of a private contractor were carrying out the work of laying cables for a private telecom company,” the official said.

“The corporator and others threatened, abused and manhandled the workers and the supervisor and made a demand of ₹1 lakh from him to let them continue with the work,” he said.

Based on the complaint filed by the supervisor, police registered a case against Gaikwad and others under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 194 (obscene acts or words), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 385 (extortion), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

However, Gaikwad said the allegations against him were “baseless”.

He said civic body has already taken up the issue of nuisance by the contractors who dig roads for the work, but do not fill the pits later.