MUMBAI: Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray is protesting outside his party headquarters at Dadar along with his family and other party leaders against the Badlapur sexual abuse case, wearing black masks.
Following the Bombay high court order on Friday, the MVA had called off its Saturday’s statewide bandh and decided that all its politicians would wear black badges and masks and resort to a sit-in strike across the state.
The MVA leaders — Shiv Sena-UBT, Congress, NCP (SP) — are protesting across the state against the Badlapur incident. Sharad Pawar plans to participate in a protest near the Ambedkar statue in Pune, while Congress’s state president Nana Patole plans to take part in a protest in Thane, CM Eknath Shinde’s turf.
Last week two four-year-old girls were sexually abused at Badlapur. Their parents complained to the school authorities, but no action was taken. Subsequently, the parents of the girls approached the Badlapur police station to lodge a case around noon on August 16 but were made to wait for 12 hours. Afterwards, the police registered the FIR and arrested the accused.
On Tuesday, people protested against the incident, stopping train services at Badlapur station, which attracted the attention of senior govt authorities and senior politicians. After the rail roko , the police had booked around 1,500 protestors for disrupting train services for around 10 hours and arrested some of them.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde assured that the accused would be tried in a fast-track court to ensure swift punishment and called the protest at the railway station was politically motivated. The MVA announced a statewide bandh on Saturday against the incident but withdrew it following the high court order on Friday.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect theri privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)