Maratha Reservation Protest: Sharad Pawar To Visit Jalna. Lathicharge ‘Deliberate’, Says Congress – Top Points

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday left for Jalna where protest for Maratha reservation turned violent and police used lathicharge which was dubbed 'deliberate' by Congress

A protest in central Maharashtra’s Jalna district on Friday turned violent leading to several people including 38 police personnel getting injured, said the officials. Police used baton-charge and fired teargas shells to disperse a violent mob at Antarwali Sarathi village on Dhule-Solapur road in Ambad tehsil. The villagers also claimed that some rounds were fired by the police, though the same was denied by the officials, as per a PTI report. On Saturday, Aurangabad Range Special IG met with the injured people while Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar also left for Jalna. 

The protest turned violent after police tried to shift Manoj Jarange, who had been staging a hunger strike demanding reservation for the Maratha community at the village since Tuesday, to hospital on doctors' advice, officials said.

• On Sunday, Aurangabad Range Special Inspector General Dnyaneshwar Chavan met those who were injured in the police lathi-charge during the protest. 


• Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar also left for Jalna on Sunday and is scheduled to visit Antarwali Sarathi village post-noon on Saturday. 


• Maharashtra Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar alleged that the baton charge was “deliberately” made to done by the Shinde government. "The government has deliberately done this to squash this movement. They can't give reservations to Marathas...They misled the Maratha community for benefit during elections,” he said while speaking to news agency ANI. 


• The agitators are still firm on their demand and said they would continue with the protest till the government provides reservation to the community.


• Cases have been registered against 16 agitators and 350 have been identified for their involvement. The case was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 307 (attempt to murder), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and others, said a Jalna police senior official. 


• Chief Minister Eknath Shinde appealed for peace and said that a high-level committee will be set up to probe into the violence, while Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed that police were forced to use baton-charge. 


• NCP working president Supriya Sule cornered the ruling alliance Bharatiya Janata Party saying, it won votes by “giving the illusion of giving reservation to the Maratha community, but the fact is that the BJP has not done anything except giving promises to the Maratha community in the matter of reservation." 


• Deputy CM Fadnavis claimed that some of the protestors surrounded the police who had gone to talk to them. “The police then resorted to baton-charge in such a way that nobody would get seriously injured. The situation would have worsened had the police not used tear gas and baton-charge,” he said.