NDA:
Mumbai: Wednesday, October 17, 2012.
An
RTIactivist was assaulted and beaten up at the office of Vile Parle MLA Krishna
Hegde on Monday.
Sanjay
Dattaram Kode, who says he has taken up some issues under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, suffered injuries on the neck and was treated at Cooper
Hospital. The incident happened on Monday morning.
The police
have registered a complaint by Kode against the unidentified people who
attacked him, as a non-cognizable offence under sections 323 and 506 of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Kode claims
that he had complained to the civic authorities against the allegedly illegal
extension of a milk shop, that even covered up a manhole. “The shop could be
shut down any day,” he said. “Hegde called me from the mobile phone of one of
his party workers and asked me to come to his office. When I went there I was
beaten up by 10-12 men.”
However, the
MLA said he did not know Kode, but that some people had approached him with
complaints against the man. “They say that Kode has been demanding money from
them after they extended their premises and that he threatened to complain to
the BMC,” Hegde said. “I do not know either of these people, so what vested
interest can I have in the matter?”
The police
said they are not clear about the matter that led to the attack, but the
indications are that it is a landlord-tenant dispute.
“The tenants
live in Santa Cruz. Apparently, both parties were called to Hegde’s office to
resolve the issue, but an argument snowballed into a scuffle,” said Shashikant
Talegaonkar, senior inspector at Vile Parle police station. “Therefore, we have
registered a non-cognizable offence from both parties.”
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