Kashimira Shiv Sena leader faces molestation charges

Mumbai: A local Shiv Sena leader, Mahesh Shinde, was booked on Friday for allegedly molesting a woman in his neighbourhood in Kashimira. Shinde, a shakha pramukh from the Hatkesh area of Kashimira, is yet to be arrested. He, however, refuted the allegations. The police’s actions came in the wake of a 39-year-old woman registering a complaint against Shinde.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that Shinde, who was in an inebriated state, had passed lewd comments on her on August 25 2017.  After the intervention of her husband, a heated exchange of words ensued which took a violent turn when Shinde and his aides mounted an assault on husband, she alleged. “Due to Shinde’s influential contacts, the police did not register a complaint, and since then her family and her were being subjected to harassment and threat,” the letter claimed.

Taking a note of the complaint, senior police inspector Vaibhav Shingare registered a FIR against Shinde.

The complainant has alleged that the politician has illegally constructed his party office in her residential complex.

Shinde termed the allegations ‘baseless’ and politically motivated. “The issue, which was nothing but a petty quarrel, is more than four months old. At that time I had registered a complaint with the police. Now on the behest of some notorious land grabbers against whom I have been fighting to save open spaces, such fabricated complaints are being framed against me. However, the law will take its own course,” he said.

Shinde had recently launched an agitation outside the main administrative building of the MBMC demanding demolition of illegal structures.