Two days after an FIR was registered against Congress’s Mumbai South candidate Milind Deora, he has pulled out the record of criminal charges against his opponent and sitting Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant. Mr. Deora on Monday alleged that Mr. Sawant had 13 criminal charges against him and that he had skipped 16 court hearings over the past few years.
“The charges against Mr. Sawant are under Section 143 (unlawful assembly), Section 144 (joining unlawful assembly with deadly weapons), and Section 353 (criminal force against public servant) among others,” said the Mumbai Congress president, listing out all the 13 charges against Mr. Sawant in a press statement. The other charges include Sections 146 (rioting), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from doing his duty), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), and 427 (mischief causing damage).
“The Election Commission (EC) has made it mandatory for all candidates with criminal records to publish those in three newspapers. Has Mr. Sawant placed such advertisements?” Mr. Deora asked, and said he believes in clean and transparent politics.
“People in the constituency want a candidate with a clean record. And if a candidate has charges against him, he should be explaining to them. What has he done to have so many serious charges against him?” he said, questioning if Mr. Sawant had attempted to misuse his power to withdraw the charges against him.
Mr. Deora said he has been in politics for 15 years and does not have a single case against him. However, an FIR was filed against him on Saturday by the EC for allegedly making a false statement during a speech at Zaveri Bazaar on April 2. Mr. Deora termed this case as “politically motivated”.
Mr. Sawant, on the other hand, said the charges mentioned by Mr. Deora were part of one case registered in 2005. “It was a political case and it is dormant now. The charge sheet has not been filed till date. If the case was so serious, why did Mr. Deora not utter a word about it during the 2014 elections?” Mr. Sawant asked. He also demanded to know what was Mr. Deora’s stand on former Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam, who has many cases registered against him.
On April 2, the additional metropolitan magistrate of Mazgaon Court had also issued a bailable warrant of ₹5,000 against Mr. Sawant.
