Mumbai: Malad police on Sunday registered a case against city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam for allegedly addressing a hawkers’ rally without requisite permissions, a day after a few hawkers assaulted MNS activists that led to the hospitalisation of one of them, Sushant Malavde who heads the party’s Malad unit and was conducting an anti-hawkers drive. The brawl between the MNS activists and the hawkers occurred after Mr Nirupam’s address to hawkers in which he asked them to resist MNS’s actions.
Several MNS leaders had accused Mr Nirupam of instigating the hawkers against MNS. Meanwhile, 18 MNS activists, who were arrested by the police on Saturday for vandalising hawkers’ stalls outside Malad railway station, procured bail from a court today. On Sunday, certain MNS activists vandalised hawkers stall situated outside the Vashi station in the evening.
According to Malad police officials, there are three different cases lodged by them --- one of them is against seven hawkers who allegedly beat up MNS, second is against 18 MNS workers who allegedly went to vandalise and beat up hawkers after their act and third is against Mr Nirupam.
The case against Mr Nirupam was registered under sections related to 143 (Whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), among others.
Mr Nirupam said, “I have sympathy for MNS workers. The hawkers would not have attacked the MNS workers, but MNS is doing Goondaraj. I am constantly following up with government to apply Hawkers Safety Law. The hawkers are capable enough to retaliate against any aggression from MNS.”
