Pune: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will visit Ahmednagar district and meet the kin of slain Sena leaders Sanjay Kotkar and Vasant Thube on April 25.
Besides, Mr. Thackeray, along with the 600 party members, including leaders at district and taluka levels, against whom a case has been registered after the murders, will gather at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s residence, Varsha, on April 17 to court arrest.
The move is a symbolic protest against the case lodged by the Ahmednagar police against the workers, who went on the rampage following the killings on April 7, destroying several vehicles and paralysing traffic.
On Sunday, the party’s top brass from the district, including former MLA Anil Rathod, MP Sadashiv Lokhande, and Shashikant Gade met Mr. Thackeray at his residence Matoshree.
“It was natural for party activists to be outraged on seeing the bodies of the two leaders lying on the street. But the situation was controlled [by Sena activists] and there was no major outbreak of violence. Despite this, the police lodged a case against us. Hence, Mr. Thackeray has decided that we will ‘give ourselves up’ at the CM’s residence on Tuesday,” a Sena leader from Ahmednagar said.
Last week, the Kotwali police, acting on a complaint by a policeman, had booked nearly 600 Sena workers, holding them responsible for the stone-pelting and vandalism.
The case filed under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) among other sections of the Indian Penal Code, alleges attacks on police personnel and local residents. Minister Ramdas Kadam had demanded that the Ahmednagar police withdraw the case.
The killings of Kotkar, the deputy leader of the party’s unit in Kedgaon, and Thube, occurred in the backdrop of a bypoll to the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation.
Two legislators, Shivaji Kardile of the BJP and his son-in-law, the NCP’s Sangram Jagtap, along with Congress candidate Vishal Kotkar, who won the Kedgaon bypoll, his father Balasaheb Kotkar, Sandeep Gunjal, and Bhanudas Kotkar have been arrested in connection with the double murder.
Twenty-six others, including Mr. Jagtap’s father, Congress leader Arun Jagtap, have been booked for hatching a conspiracy and executing the killings.
Mr. Kardile has also been booked for the vandalism of the office of the Superintendent of Police, which followed Mr. Sangram Jagtap’s arrest.
