Chhagan Bhujbal ‘forgives’ Shiv Sena attackers

Mumbai: Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal on Saturday was produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court where he deposed as a witness in a more than two decade old case in which members of Shiv Sena had attacked and ransacked his official bungalow near Mantralaya. 

Bhujbal has been in judicial the custody after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him for his alleged role in a multi-crore scam.

After deposing before the court, Bhujbal requested the court to forgive (let off) the accused as he did not wish to pursue the case; however, as per the prosecution, Bhujbal’s request has no meaning in eye of the law because — despite being the victim — he is just a witness in the case and state is conducting the trial.

In his testimony, Bhujbal confirmed the incident but also requested the court to forgive the accused. He told the court that after Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s health deteriorated, he withdrew his defamation case against him and Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana. Bhujbal did not identify any accused and told the court that these people (accused) had been coming to court for the last 20 years and he does not wish to pursue the matter.

“As per our case Bhujbal was not expected to identify any of the accused because he was in another room when the incident happened and he had no occasion to see the attackers,” said public prosecutor Rajendra Suryawanshi adding that the case of prosecution is intact. “Bhujbal has narrated the incident and accepted that his official bungalow was attacked and ransacked. He was called because it was his bungalow which was attacked and there are other witnesses who had seen the incident,” Mr Suryawanshi further added.

Bhujbal was brought to court at around 11.45 am and he deposed in Marathi. Initially he narrated entire episode on how he had parted ways with Shiv Sena due to differences with Bal Thackeray. In 1996-97 somebody had desecrated a statue of BR Ambedkar at Ramabai Colony in suburban Ghatkopar, following which Dalits came out on streets in protest but the police fired at protesters, resulting in death of 10 people and another 26 persons were injured.

The incident led to a blame game between the Shiv Sena and BJP-led ruling government. Bhujbal was opposition leader at that time. After the incident, an individual had claimed that desecration of the statue was done at the instance of Bhujbal and, on the basis of this claim, the  Sena mouthpiece had published news on its front-page portraying Bhujbal as villain.

Justice Gundewar panel after conducting an inquiry gave clean chit to Bhujbal in its report and following this Bhujbal filed defamation case against Bal Thackeray and Saamana. 

Due to the allegations some Shiv Sainiks attacked Bhujbal’s official bungalow A-10 but Bhujbal hid in another room and was saved and a case was registered against 11 persons including Shubhangi Valawkar, Manohar Salvi. 

In a dramatic scene, when Bhujbal came out of the courtroom, the  accused became emotional and waived at him, saying ‘Jai Maharashtra’. Bhujbal replied to this gesture, repeating their salutations.

Background of the case
Around 9.15 am on July 1997, Shiv Sainiks started gathering near Chhagan Bhujbal’s bungalow A-10 near Mantralaya. Around 10.30am the mob attacked Bhujbal’s bungalow from all sides. All doors of the bungalow were broken open and attackers smashed furniture, a telephone, and a photocopy machine. They also shredded files and set a bonfire of the debris on the main road in front of Mantralaya. The mob ran away when somebody shouted “fire, fire”. The police later registered a case against 11 Shiv Sainiks.