Rahul Gandhi

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday invited an OBC couple from Sindhudurg district, who had been ostracised by members of the upper castes, to perform a puja for the Ganpati idol installed at his official residence.

With an idol of Ganpati in their hands, Parmanand Hewalekar and wife Preetam, who hail from the village of Mahadevache Kerwade in Kudal taluka, held a dharna on Wednesday night in front of Mantralaya to protest against the boycott.

According to them, they have been ostracised for the last three years and residents of their village had barred them from celebrating Ganesh puja and no action had been taken against the offenders in spite of them making complaints with the higher authorities.

Hearing their plight, Mr Fadnavis invited them to Varsha and performed Ganesh puja with them. He also assured them he would look into their grievances, said officials.

Incidentally, Maharashtra was the first state in the country to bring out a law making social boycott a crime. In April this year, the state legislature unanimously passed the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016.

Under this Act, anyone found guilty of imposing any social boycott on an individual or a group of individuals can be imprisoned up to three years and can be fined '1 lakh. The fine (in whole or part) will be given as compensation to the victim.

If the accused is convicted, the court shall hear the victim on the quantum of sentence and only then pass the sentence, the bill states. The sentence is compoundable. The offence is cognisable and bailable as per the bill.

Last month a 45-year-old autorickshaw driver in Pune was allegedly driven to suicide after allegedly suffering sustained humiliation at the hands of an illicit caste tribunal. Arun Kisan Naikunji, who belonged to the Lingayat Gawli caste, allegedly took his own life at his home in Pune’s Wadgaon Sheri area by hanging himself after his family and he were boycotted relentlessly for two years by the caste tribunal. He had suffered social exclusion for reportedly supporting an inter-caste marriage, which was attended by the victim’s brother.