MLAs Ram Kadam of the MNS and Kshitij Thakur of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi Party yesterday surrendered before the Mumbai Crime Branch after being named in an FIR for beating up a traffic cop.
They were taken to the Killa Court, which sent them to police custody for a day until Friday. Incidentally, the Mumbai police kept all necessary case papers against Kadam ready, to seek his custody in other cases in case he was released on bail.u00a0
On January 18, a BMC sub-engineer Mahesh Phad was allegedly threatened by Ram Kadam and attacked by his supporters. The Pant Nagar police which had jurisdiction did not make any arrests in the case. Kadam also allegedly threatened cops at Santacruz police station, after officials had closed a lounge where Kadam was present.
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Will justice prevail? MLA Ram Kadam (above) and MLA Kshitiji Thakur (below) surrendered before the Crime Branch at the Police Commissioner’s headquarters near Crawford Market yesterday. Both MLAs have been accused of thrashing Sachin Suryavansi, API, Traffic, on Monday. Pics/Bipin Kokateu00a0
Officials at Pant Nagar and Santacruz police stations, who had not made any efforts to arrest Kadam since the time the cases were registered, made an appearance in Esplanade court to seek Kadam’s custody on Thursday in the two cases,ready with all the paperwork.
When contacted, DCP (Zone VII) Mahesh Ghure said, “We sought the custody only after the probe against Kadam was over.” Santacruz police officials refused to comment on the issue.
“We need their custody to investigate which MLAs were present when they beat up API Suryavanshi,” said a crime branch officer. He added, “We are yet to get the CCTV footage of the incident and only through that will we be able to identify all the MLAs who were present when Suryavanshi was assaulted.”
Meanwhile, their defence lawyer showed a Right To Information (RTI) document showing that Suryavanshi had sustained no visible injuries and there was no bleeding. “It was a medical report that the accused MLAs managed to get in just one day from St George Hospital (where Suryavanshi had been taken after the incident) through RTI,” said a crime branch official. The police said Suryavanshi had been shifted to Bombay Hospital, as he suffering from severe chest pain and other ailments. u00a0
The incident
On Monday, Vasai MLA Kshitij Thakur's car was stopped by traffic API Sachin Suryavanshi for speeding on the sea link after which the API was called to the assembly on Tuesday, where he was assaulted by Thakur and MLA Ram Kadam, who slapped him. Later, 15 other MLAs joined them in beating the cop in Vidhan Bhavan. The incident created a furore in the political circle and the police department, and Thakur and Kadam were suspended.u00a0
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