Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly targeted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the delay to arrest former Mumbai unit president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Ganesh Pandey, who was booked for allegedly molesting a woman member of the BJPs youth wing.
Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde rejected NCP group leader Jayant Patils adjournment motion on the issue.
Patil targeted Fadnavis, who also heads Home department, for the delay in Pandeys arrest. Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil also criticised the government on the issue.
An FIR was registered last evening at Versova police station on the basis of complaint of the woman who alleged that Pandey harassed her by posing to her obscene questions and passing lewd remarks inside a hotel room in Mathura on March 4 during the BJYMs three-day executive committee meeting.
Fadnavis denied any political interference in the matter.
“Immediately after BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar received a complaint in this regard, he suspended Pandey and disbanded the entire Mumbai Yuva Morcha unit. Shelar had also asked the woman to file a police complaint, but as she was reluctant, I asked the Women Commission to probe the matter,” Fadnavis said.
He said the complainant lodged a police complaint yesterday and accordingly an FIR was registered.
“There was no question of sparing anyone who is found guilty,” he added.
In her written complaint to BJP city unit president Ashish Shelar, the woman had stated that Pandey also “held her hand” when she tried to leave the room.
According to police, the woman alleged in her complaint that Pandey had texted her several messages which were in a “bad taste”.
