A day after a group of Shiv Sena activists >assaulted and blackened the face of a Right to Information activist in Maharashtra’s Latur district, the party was compelled to dismiss the culprits on Saturday in the face of growing political and public outrage over the shameful incident.
Sena Youth wing president, Aditya Thackeray, said that the four Youth brigade members who were responsible for trashing the RTI activist, Mallikarjun Bhaikatti, with an iron rod, were dismissed forthwith from the Party.
“Heard of the unfortunate incident in Latur. The Party strongly condemns the disgraceful act. Those involved have been removed from the Party,” Mr. Thackeray tweeted.
Mr. Bhaikatti was dragged in front of 4000 students outside Latur’s Shahu College and his face was splattered with ink, akin to the Sena’s face-blackening offensive on chairman of the Observer Research Foundation and former BJP ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni in Mumbai.
He had allegedly ‘threatened’ to expose irregularities in the construction of a building within the college premises.
Several RTI activists across the State have condemned the Sena for the incident.
