MNS workers thrash man accused of sexual misconduct at Thane press conference, threaten migrant workers

Workers affiliated with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) thrashed a man accused of sexual assault at a press conference in Thane on Monday, reported News18. The party workers also made a threatening statement against migrant workers in the state and said people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would be thrown out if such cases did not stop.

#महाराष्ट्र: ठाणे में दो साल की बच्ची से 53 साल के आदमी पर अश्लील हरकत का आरोपी की MNS कार्यकर्ताओं ने प्रेस कॉन्फ्रेंस में ही पिटाई कर दी.@k_navjyot pic.twitter.com/JHnieuzmsn

— News18 India (@News18India) October 8, 2018

The 53-year-old man getting beaten up in the video was accused of sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl. The incident of beating up the accused by the MNS workers occurred in the presence of police. When questioned about this the party workers claimed that if incidents of sexual assault did not stop then they would take law into their own hands. Party workers have in the past also been intolerant towards migrant workers in Maharashtra. The cadres of the party on 19 May smashed and pulled down over 20 signboards on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in the district’s Vasai area. “Vasai and Thane district are in Maharashtra and not Gujarat, and we will not tolerate name boards in Gujarati anymore,” MNS Thane region president Avinash Jadhav had told PTI over the phone. In July last year, some workers of the MNS had protested against a jewellery shop in Dadar and a hotel in the Mahim area of Mumbai, asking them to remove the signboards in Gujarati, the police had then said.