Nearly two days after the incident, police registered a case against some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from Bandra on charges of assaulting and stripping two minors at the office of party corporator Mahesh Parkar, and inside the local police station
However, sources say owing to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally at Bandra Kurla Complex this Sunday, police will not immediately arrest the four accused, one of whom is the party’s ward president in the area. Cops believe that any attempts towards apprehending them ahead of the meet may result in friction. The accused are likely to be arrested on Monday.
MiD DAY had reported the matter yesterday (‘Claiming mobile theft, political party workers thrash two minors’). BJP ward president Bablu Singh, the main accused, and a few aides, allegedly picked up Wasim Mohammad Shafi and Ajay Dhakle on Tuesday evening. They suspected that the boys had stolen a mobile phone from them two months ago.
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Bablu and his associates then allegedly took both the youngsters to corporator Mahesh Parkar’s office at Shantilal Compound in Khar (E), and thrashed them badly. The culprits suspended Wasim upside down, taking him to a fourth floor flat, and even threatened to drop him from there. They then beat up Ajay, and said that they would throw him on the railway tracks. Finally, the boys were taken to Nirmal Nagar police station. The victims said they repeatedly begged for their lives and pleaded that they had not stolen the phone.
At the police station, Bablu Singh allegedly stripped the boys inside the detection room, and even started interrogating them. Meanwhile, the parents of the teens came to know about the incident and arrived there. Cops initially did not lodge a case against the culprits, relenting only after media reports yesterday. Wasim is still recuperating at Bhabha hospital.
“We have registered a case of assault against Singh and three others. We are probing the matter and will arrest them soon,” said Ashok Borse, senior inspector of Nirmal Nagar police station.
“A very important rally of Narendra Modi is set to take place on Sunday. Arrest of BJP workers in Bandra itself will create tension in the area, which will be tough to manage. Therefore, they will be likely taken into custody on Monday. There is huge pressure on us for not arresting the accused now,” a source from the police station said.
Corporator speaks
When contacted by MiD DAY, Parkar said, “I was not even present in Mumbai when the incident took place. These two minors were beaten up by the public and my party workers only handed them over to police. This is a political ploy by Congress to show us in poor light. All the allegations are baseless.”u00a0
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