FIR Against Ex-Maha Minister Jitendra Awhad Over 'Molestation'; Supporters go on Rampage

Former Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad, who was arrested last week for forcibly disrupting a theatre screening of the Marathi film ?Har Har Mahadev,? announced his resignation on Monday after another FIR was filed against him on a complaint of ?molestation? filed by a BJP leader.

Massive protests erupted in Thane in support of Awhad soon after he was booked on Monday. A bandh was called in Mumbra where supporters of the NCP leader also blocked traffic the police station after cops registered second FIR, while a ?rasta roko? (road block) was also observed.

Calling out the ?fake cases? against him, Awhad took to Twitter and said, ?police have filed two fake cases against me in the last 72 hours and that too under Section 354 of the IPC. This is the murder of democracy. I will fight. I have decided to resign from my MLA post.”

A video of incident going viral shows Awhad pushing aside the woman amid a crowd gathered for the inauguration of the Mumbra-Shilphata Y-Junction flyover. In the video, Awhad can be seen walking alongside Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde?s vehicle when he pushed the woman with both hands to clear the way.

Speaking to News18 later, Awhad said, ?Whatever is happening is wrong. I am not going to speak to the media. Why don?t you see the video? Show the video. Everything is clear in it?.

Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad held a press conference over the matter where the latter showed a video of him referring to the complainant as sister. ?I want to ask where do you see an act under the definition of outraging modesty of a woman,? Awhad asked.

?Maharashtra is going though bad political phase I don’t want to talk about vengeance and vendetta. Three days prior to this there was a case against me and that was false. It was an illegal detention and arrest,? Awhad said, adding that the complaint in the molestation case ?was registered after the woman met CM?.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA was out on bail after being released by the Thane Sessions Court on Saturday.  While granting him bail, the court asked him to not try and influence  witnesses and appear before the Vartak Nagar police station whenever he is summoned.

Talking to reporters after his release, Awhad defended his actions and said that distorting history will give a wrong message to the future generation. ?This has not only defamed the Maratha king but also the tarnished the state?s image and it will not be tolerated,? he said, PTI reported.

Awhad along with 11 others were arrested by the Thane police last Friday after they forcibly stopped the movie at a theatre inside a mall in Thane city, alleging that it distorted the history of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Apart from this, some people who attended the movie were also beaten up when they protested the interruption, according to PTI.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered over the incident at Vartak Nagar police station under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (assault) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

Awhad said he was ready to face the consequences for fighting against the distortion of historical facts. ?Presenting history in a distorted manner will give a wrong message to the future generation and this should be stopped,? the NCP leader had said earlier.

He alleged a conspiracy to defame the Maratha warrior king and said that the censor board should verify the historical facts presented in a movie while giving it a green signal.

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