Sena corporator Rajendra Suryawanshi, who was accused of assaulting a civic official from the G North ward on Thursday, appeared before the Shivaji Park police on Monday, turned himself in, was presen
Sena corporator Rajendra Suryawanshi, who was accused of assaulting a civic official from the G North ward on Thursday, appeared before the Shivaji Park police on Monday, turned himself in, was presented in court and received bail.
Suryavanshi maintains that he got into a verbal tiff with the official and did not assault him, contrary to the civic body’s claims in the FIR it registered with the Shivaji Nagar police station on Friday.
Suryawanshi has challenged the BMC to prove their allegations against him and asked the police to check CCTV footage of the incident. He said, “I am innocent, which is why I appeared before the police myself. They have not been able to prove charges against me so far, which is why I got bail.”
Suryawanshi has claimed he had a verbal argument with the civic official after he found that the latter was not doing the nullah desilting work appointed to him efficiently. There are about 300 people working on desilting the minor nullahs in this ward and Suryawanshi claimed he wanted to provide at least 100 more to fast forward the work. However, the official refused to induct the people in his team. As the argument heated up, the official was allegedly beaten up by the Sena corporator.
While, assistant commissioner of G North ward Ramakant Biradar confirmed that his junior engineer was beaten up in his presence, Suryawanshi said, “There was no other person in the room. All civic officials will take each other’s side and I can prove this is an election agenda. I have not touched anyone.”
A senior civic official who did not want to be named said, “The corporators try to hook up their party workers for such BMC jobs as the minimum wages offered by the BMC are now nearing Rs 100 per day. We do not need the additional people this corporator was providing to us. Nullah desilting work is presently running on schedule.”
The Shivaji Nagar Police has booked Suryavanshi for physical assault and for causing hindrance to government work.
