Maha Assembly revokes suspension of 5 MLAs who assaulted traffic cop

After a committee that probed the incident exonerated them, the Maharashtra Assembly today revoked the suspension of five MLAs who had allegedly assaulted a traffic police constable on the premises of the Assembly. Making the announcement, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Patil informed the House that the suspension was being revoked after a meeting of group leaders of parties and following the recommendations of the committee formed under the chairmanship of senior legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh to investigate the incident. The decision to revoke the suspension comes after the Opposition had sought yesterday that the five MLAs be allowed to attend proceedings in the legislative assembly since a chargesheet had already been filed against two of them by the police. Two MLAs, Kshitij Thakur (Bahujan Vikas Agadhi) and Ram Kadam (MNS), were arrested in March for allegedly assaulting API Sachin Suryavanshi in the Maharashtra Assembly. [caption id=“attachment_982019” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The assaulted police official had also been suspended following the incident. Image courtesy Ibnlive.[/caption] In addition to Thakur and Kadam, the legislative assembly had suspended Rajan Salvi (Shiv Sena), Pradeep Jaiswal (an Independent MLA) and Jaykumar Raval (BJP) for their alleged role in assaulting the police official. A committee of legislators which probed the incident had found two of the lawmakers guilty, but recommended the revoking of their suspension. The assaulted police official had been admitted in hospital following the assault and was subsequently discharged. However, he was later suspended till the inquiry into the incident was completed. The seven-member Ganpatrao Deshmukh panel of legislators had, however, observed that injuries inflicted on the Assistant Police Inspector were “not serious” in nature. The police official, who had been suspended, has also been reinstated at his post. The police official had stopped one of the MLAs, Thakur, on charges of speeding on 18 March and had an argument with the MLA and his supporters. When called to the Vidhan Bhawan building a day later he was allegedly assaulted by the MLAs. with inputs from PTI