Some whispers in political corridors state, that people who pelted stones at Sharad Pawar’s house were hired from Pune. The police investigation has revealed that a political party tried to cause riots by these hired strikers but failed. There is a common discussion that the Shiv Sena leader might have plotted this attack to divert the attention from ongoing ED and IT rides. Since the Silver Oak incident happened, the news about Shiv Sena leader’s corruption charges has taken a back seat. The motive behind this stone pelting is to bring opposition in poor light.
The Conspirators of this attack have done wrong to Mr Pawar. I don’t think from this attack Maha Vikas Aghadi can really take any advantage. Rather came as a big jolt. Pawar enjoys Z-Plus category security that the NCP’s Dilip Walse-Patil is the State Home Minister, the unprecedented storming of the NCP chief’s residence by the MSRTC employees is an intelligence and policy failure. How can the media reach the incident and the police are clueless? Were they asked to deliberately ignore the attack? Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut expressed discontent over the inability of the Mumbai police to stop the attack. The home department is with the NCP and senior leader, one of the most trusted aides of Mr Pawar, Dilip Walse-Patil, who is the home minister.
Police have checked the CCTV footage near Silver Oak to find out if anyone has conducted a recce of Pawar’s residence before the protest. If you see media coverage, the media was waiting for the attackers well in advance at the spot. There were live converges. I saw media cameras running behind the protests showing whatever was happening on the ground. Who must have informed the media?
The other angle of the story is that Advocate Gunaratan Sadavarte instigated the protestors by sending them misleading WhatsApp messages. Sadavarte was doing all this on the instructions of the opposition party. Gamdevi police arrested 110 protesters, including 23 women and advocate Sadavarte. At least 104 people were arrested from the Malabar Hill area immediately after the incident, whereas six others were arrested later in the night. 109 employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) were produced before the court. Their statements are recorded and most of them give shocking clues.
The police want to find the mastermind behind the conspiracy. Police officials said that investigators suspect that the attack on Pawar’s bungalow could be pre-planned as few individuals were spotted suspiciously moving in the area to recce Pawar’s residence two days before the incident. It captured their movement on CCTV cameras installed in the area. These individuals are yet to be identified.
The ruling Shiv Sena accused the BJP of “masterminding” the attack and claimed that there was a “sinister plan” to cause “physical harm” to Pawar and his family members. Sadavarte had made calls to Nagpur before the incident. He strategically worked on the timings of the attack, at that time Sadavarte engaged himself inside the court arguing some cases so that he can’t be suspected. Police are finding out whom he called at Nagpur to identify the persons behind the conspiracy. Several police officers were injured in the protests. The FIR is booked under sections 142 (being a member of unlawful assembly), 145 (joining or continuing in unlawful assembly, knowing it has been commanded to disperse), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of the offence committed in prosecution of common object), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty) 334 (voluntarily causing hurt on provocation).
NCP Supremo Pawar has been the chief architect of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, an alliance of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena which was formed in Nov 2019 to keep the BJP out of power. That has irked BJP a lot but plotting such attacks will not make any sense. Devendra Fadnavis has already given them a good run. He strategically exposed the corruption and levelled charges by giving enough tough time to Maha Vikas Aghadi ministers. Some of their ministers are already in jail; the others are on the verge of going to jail.
Some political pundits view these attacks as BJP’s hidden intentions to bring back the Shiv Sena alliance to their fold. After the Ajit Pawar episode, Devendra will never try with NCP. The Shiv Sena BJP alliance is old, that is the reason they hassle Shiv Sena leaders but none of them is sent to jail, whereas NCP leaders are already behind bars. BJP is still leaving some scope for mending their differences with Shiv Sena because coming to the power with no support is not possible for BJP. MNS is a dead horse; BJP cannot afford to ride on them.
Whatever is happening in Maharashtra is to create unrest and destabilise Maha Vikas Aghadi Government. There are hundreds of theories given across social media about the attack on Silver Oak, but one thing is sure, this attack was uncalled for.
