’Sack the ACP, or we quit the party’

Said Maharashtra Youth Congress members in a meeting with the CM, protesting alleged mishandling of its workers by police posse under ACP Mahabole

'Sack the ACP, or we quit the party'

Said Maharashtra Youth Congress members in a meeting with the CM, protesting alleged mishandling of its workers by police posse under ACP Mahabole

All is not well within the quarters of the Maharashtra Youth Congress. Members of the youth body have threatened to resign en mass, after two of their key members faced the brunt of what they claim was an uncalled for police assault. The Youth Congress President Sadaf Aboli has demanded the dismissal of the local Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Anil Mahabole, alleging that he is to blame for the critical condition of two of the body's members.

Beaten up: Afzal Dawoodani, Youth Congress vice-president, Mumbadevi,
admitted at GT Hospital yesterday

On Thursday, Aboli, accompanied by a delegation, met the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and demanded the immediate dismissal of Mahabole. Gaining an audience with Chavan, the delegation threatened to boycott all party operations, if Mahabole was allowed to continue in office beyond a week. This came in the wake of an alleged lathi charge unleashed by the police under the aegis of Mahabole, in course of the Youth Congress members' protest against the arrest of their iconic leader Rahul Gandhi. In course of the allegedly uncalled for lathi charge, 12 party workers sustained grievous injuries, two of whom are still admitted to the ICU of government-owned G T Hospitalu00a0-- Afzal Dawoodani, Youth Congress vice president, Mumbadevi, and Nilesh Tiwari, President of the Colaba Assembly.

A member of the delegation claimed that they were raising the issue in order to expose that action had not been initiated against Mahabole, despite the fact that his alleged links with the underworld had been established in a report sent by the Anti Corruption Bureau to the police commissioner a few years ago.

"The attack was one sided. There were BSP workers nearby, in possession of iron rods and hockey sticks, but police ignored their presence. I demand that action be taken on the perpetrators of the lathi charge. The CM assured us that he would set up an inquiry," said Aboli.

Their side of the story
According to party leaders, the workers had congregated on Thursday evening to carry out a morcha, in order to lodge their protest against the detainment of their beloved leader and the Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, in Uttar Pradesh last Wednesday night. The protesters were marching from their Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) office to the Azad Maidan. The march was led by the likes of Kripashankar Singh, Nasim Khan, Amin Patel, Javed Shroff, and Aboli.

The protesters were reportedly shouting slogans such as "Mayawati Murdabad" andu00a0u00a0"Mayawati Hai, Hai". This irked the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers present at the BSP office, located opposite the MRCC office. The BSP workers reached the spot and tried to drown out their slogans by shouting similar ones: only theirs decried Gandhi scion, and not the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. When the two parties were embroiled in a heated argument, Mahabole ordered the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) contingent to lathi charge the Congress workers. Mahabole allegedly called in a police van and arrested 12 congress workers. "Mahabole is inhuman. He is a goon in police uniform. It has been established that Mahabole has close links with Dawood Ibrahim," said Dawoodani. In spite of repeated phone calls, Mahabole could not be reached for comments.