Amit Thackeray (File photo)
NAVI MUMBAI: Nerul police have filed an FIR against Amit Thackeray, the son of MNS chief Raj Thackeray and 70 MNS workers including office bearers for defying police prevention and forcibly unveiling the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a canopy constructed by NMMC at a junction in sector -1, Nerul near Rajiv Gandhi flyover on Sunday afternoon.The accused have been booked under relevant sections of BNS for assault or criminal force against a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant in the discharge of their duty, unlawful assembly, rioting, joint liability and mischief causing loss or damage to property along with relevant sections of Maharashtra Police Act. The accused are Amit Thackeray, chief of Maharashtra Vidyarthi Sena, Mumbai, Gajanan Kale, MNS President of Navi Mumbai City and Abhijit Desai, MNS Nerul unit chief among other MNS workers, informed Brahmanand Naikwadi, senior inspector of Nerul.Inspector Naikwadi said, “The accused had took out a morcha without permission and gathering unlawfully assaulted the on-duty Assistant police inspector Nilesh Chavan and also created obstruction in government work by disregarding the instructions given by the police and also maliciously damaged the net installed around the statue by NMMC.”During his visit to Nerul, Amit Thackeray got annoyed after seeing that the statue of Maratha King was covered in a cloth on which dust had accumulated, as NMMC had delayed the unveiling since Feb last year. As Nerul police learnt that Amit Thackeray was going to unofficially unveil the statue, a police team from Nerul was deployed at the spot to prevent the unofficial unveiling of the statue of Maratha King. But, the MNS workers accompanying Thackeray vehemently protested defying the police prevention and forcibly reached the canopy and tore apart the cloth covering the statue after which Thackeray himself washed the statue. Gajanan Kale, MNS President of Navi Mumbai said, “Despite repeated communication with NMMC since Feb last year demanding unveiling of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Nerul chowk built with an expenditure of around Rs 46 lakhs, the concerned civic authorities have been ignoring as probably they are waiting for appointment of CM Devendra Fadnavis. As the cloth used to cover the statue had become dirty, it was indeed desecration of the statue of Maratha king. Hence, Amit Thackeray took the lead to unveil the statue and himself washed the statue.”NMMC has released a presser stating that, the unveiling the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Nerul was not done by NMMC. Actually, the construction work around the statue has not been completed yet and is in the final stages. Therefore, the ceremonial installation of the statue was to be announced soon. Unveiling the statue without taking permission from the concerned authority and without giving any prior notice is very wrong and unauthorized from the point of view of law and order.
