National

Raj Thackeray behaving like a regional terrorist: counsel

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on November 10 a public interest litigation (PIL) petition for a direction to the Centre and the Maharashtra government to detain Raj Thackeray, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) under the National Security Act (NSA) for his alleged terror acts against north Indians in Mumbai and other places in Maharashtra.

A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Aftab Alam directed the petition filed by advocate Sanjiv Kumar Singh to be listed on November 10 along with another PIL seeking the Centre’s intervention. On November 4, the court had observed that the situation could be controlled if there was political will.

When counsel said that everyday north Indians were being targeted by Mr. Thackeray’s men, Mr. Justice Singhvi told him, “This is internal disturbance and the State has failed to control it. Do you know there is Article 355 in the Constitution [under which the Centre can interfere when there is internal disturbance in a State]. You have not mentioned anything about this Article in your petition.”

When counsel insisted for court’s intervention since north Indians were targeted, Mr. Justice Singhvi said: “All of us are Indians and there is no difference between people coming from various regions.” When the judge asked “Who are the north Indians who are attacked,” counsel said, “All those from Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who speak Hindi are attacked.”

Counsel contended that “the workers of MNS under the instigation of Mr. Thackeray have been threatening the life and property of north Indians in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai; shops were being gutted and all signboards written in English and Hindi were being broken and forcibly rewritten in Marathi language.”

The petitioner said that on October 18, students of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh who went to appear for the railway recruitment examination at Mumbai were beaten by MNS workers and they tore the examination papers. Rahul Raj, a student from Bihar, was killed by the Mumbai police in a fake encounter for questioning the action of Mr. Thackeray. Within few days of this incident, Dharam Dev, a worker from Uttar Pradesh was killed in a Mumbai train allegedly at the instigation of MNS workers.

He alleged that Mr. Thackeray was behaving like a regional terrorist, “provokes enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language etc. prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony, a cognisable offence under the Indian Penal Code.”

While seeking a judicial enquiry into violent incidents involving MNS workers, the petitioner sought a direction to detain Mr. Thackeray under the NSA and to transfer all cases against him to a court outside Maharashtra.

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