Five Maharashtra MLAs who beat up cop suspended till 31 Dec

Five Maharashtra MLAs who beat up Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi on Tuesday have been reportedly suspended till December 31. The Mumbai Crime Branch is also likely to arrest the two main accused MLAs Bahujan Vikas Aghadi’s Kshitij Thakur and MNS’s Ram Kadam, for leading the assault on this police inspector, CNN-IBN reported. Earlier on Wednesday an FIR was registered against Vasai MLA Kshitij Thakur and MNS legislator Ram Kadam (MNS) and fourteen others for allegedly beating a policeman, in the state assembly premises, police said. [caption id=“attachment_668551” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mantralaya. AFP[/caption] “As per the complaint by the victim — Assistant Police Inspector (API) Sachin — attached to the Worli police station, the FIR was registered at Marine Drive police station against MLAs Kshitij Thakur, Ram Kadam and around 14 others,” a police officer said. The accused have been booked under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation), the officer added. Names of other accused in the case are not yet available. The investigation into the incident is likely to handed over to the Crime Branch, which usually probes underworld cases and other serious offences, he said. Suryawanshi was allegedly beaten up by a group of MLAs including Thakur, Kadam, Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena), Pradeep Jaiswal (Independent), among others, on the first floor of the Vidhan Bhavan. Suryawanshi had allegedly stopped the vehicle of Kshitij Thakur on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link when the MLA was on his way to attend the legislative assembly session. Thakur was reportedly fined because his vehicle had exceeded the speed limit. There was an altercation between the legislator and the policeman, during which the latter allegedly misbehaved with Thakur. This morning, Thakur, who represents the Vasai assembly constituency, moved a breach of privilege notice against Suryavanshi and gave a detailed account of the policeman’s “misbehaviour.” Angered by Thakur’s information, members cutting across party lines demanded the policeman’s suspension. Suryavanshi was sitting in the visitor’s gallery at that time and some of the MLAs saw Suryavanshi in the visitors’ gallery making “provocative” gestures with his hand and was looking down at the assembly members. They caught hold of Suryavanshi at the entrance to the visitors gallery on the first floor and allegedly thrashed him. With PTI inputs