As 15 lakh State government employees and gazetted officers went on strike on Thursday to protest the gruesome killing of Additional Collector of Nashik Yashwant Sonawane, the State government cracked the whip on the oil, sand and milk mafia in the State.
“In the last 36 hours, we have arrested 170 persons in raids conducted across the State,” K.P. Raghuvanshi, Additional Director-General of Police, told journalists here.
Home Minister R.R. Patil said the arrests were part of preventive action against the mafia. “The police have been instructed to provide protection to government officials who conduct raids.”
The raids were conducted in Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Sindhudurg, Wardha, Alibaug, Ratnagiri and Nashik among others.
Meanwhile, the police on Thursday arrested the lone absconding accused in the case, Ajay Sonawane from Pune. “With his arrest, all the 10 accused have been nabbed,” Mr. Raghuvanshi said. The eleventh accused Popat Shinde had himself suffered grievous burn injuries and was undergoing treatment at the J.J. Hospital here. “If and when he gets well, he will be taken in custody,” he said.
In Manmad, three accused — Hakkani Khan Rabbani Khan Pathan, Imran Khan Hakkani Khan Pathan and Ajay Sonawane — were produced in the local court which remanded them to police custody till February 8.
The co-accused and son of the main accused Popat Shinde was produced in the Nashik Juvenile court and subsequently sent to the reformation centre by the court. “He is 17 years and seven months old. So we produced him in the juvenile court,” the public prosecutor told The Hindu.
He said the prosecution argued on the same grounds they cited previously. “We only added one more ground in the argument — that we intercepted a tanker in Vaijapur taluka and arrested its driver and cleaner. We told the court that we want to find out who the owner of the tanker was, from where the tanker had begun its journey and where it was heading,” he said.
State-wide strike
State government employees and A, B, C and D gazetted officers went on a day-long strike to protest the killing of Sonawane. “The response was overwhelming,” G.D. Kulthe, general Secretary of the Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers' Federation told The Hindu.
He said that in Ahmednagar, employees of private institutions, banks, corporation and some semi-government organisations too participated in the rally. “This only shows that there is seething anger in the hearts of the people. They want the government to protect honest officers from the mafia. Peaceful morchas were taken out across the State. There was no untoward incident anywhere.”
He said Divisional Commissioners participated in the rallies in Pune and Nashik. “Collectors joined the rally and shared the platform in Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Amravati. Morchas were held even at the taluka level. We are ourselves overwhelmed by the response.”
CM assures staff of full protection
He said the Chief Minister had called the office-bearers of the federation and assured them of strict action against the culprits. “He also assured us that full protection will be given to officers doing such risky jobs. But we will be happy only when we see results,” he said.
Mr. Kulthe added that some politicians were themselves supporting the mafia. “The mafia will not become big without politicians' support. We want the government to dig that out,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Home Minister said that the government was contemplating amending the anti-pilferage laws so that the culprits do not take advantage of the loopholes.
