Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Lok Sabha MP Anand Paranjpe on Saturday slammed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Thane police in connection with 11 First Information Reports (FIRs) filed against him over a single protest held in December.
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His comments come a day after the Bombay High Court pulled up Maharashtra police for registering 11 FIRs in connection with one protest against the CM, with a division bench noting that police will learn a lesson only when costs are imposed on them, which they would have to pay from their salaries.
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The first FIR was registered at Shrinagar police station here on December 12 following the protest, and later 10 more cases were filed at different police stations within the Thane commissionerate.
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Addressing a press conference, Paranjpe said he could be killed in an encounter in this manner and slammed the Thane police for working as a "private army" of the ruling party.
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Such kind of treatment meted out to politicians was completely unwarranted and the administrative machinery was being misused by the ruling dispensation to settle scores, Paranjpe alleged.
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He claimed his colleague and former minister Jitendra Awhad was similarly named in several cases after he led a protest against the ruling party over the screening of a Marathi film on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that allegedly distorted history.