Engineer allegedly beaten up at Minister Jitendra Awhad's home; BJP demands his ouster

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to immediately sack Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad from the Cabinet. He termed the incident where a person was allegedly dragged to the aforesaid Minister's house by his security personnel and badly beaten up as "extremely grave". While acknowledging that an individual had a right to file a complaint against the misuse of social media, he contended that no semblance of law and order would exist in the state if the governing class took law into their own hands. Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil also condemned the alleged misuse of authority by Awhad. 

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Thane resident alleges thrashing at Awhad's residence

Awhad had publicly opposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to light a lamp at 9 pm on April 5. He lamented that problems such as lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and fewer tests had not been addressed. Subsequently, a civil engineer in Thane posted a reportedly offensive social media post ridiculing Awhad.

As per the complainant's account in the FIR registered at the Vartak Nagar Police station, two constables reached his house and took him to the Maharashtra Housing Minister's bungalow. Thereafter, the engineer was allegedly beaten badly by the police constables and goons with lathis, belts and bamboo sticks. While Awhad has refrained from directly commenting on the veracity of the incident, he wrote on Twitter stressing that he did not support lawlessness. 

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