“It is respectfully submitted here that this is a matter of extreme vendetta where a minor has been persecuted in a frivolous case purely based on the allegations of a private person,” Sanket Gokhale said. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Friday (February 28, 2025) wrote to the Chief Justice of India seeking suo moto cognisance of a recent case in Maharashtra where the authorities had bulldozed the house of a Muslim scrap dealer.
The Trinamool MP has alleged that a minor 15-year-old Muslim boy and his family were targeted as part of the “dirty communal politics of the BJP”.
Calling it a matter of urgent public importance and concern, Mr. Gokhale stated, “This letter petition concerns a matter of great public importance where a shocking incident has been reported from Malvan in Maharashtra.” Referring to an incident where reports of anti-India slogans being allegedly given from a house in Malvan after the India-Pakistan match last Sunday (February 23, 2025), an FIR was subsequently registered.
“It is respectfully submitted here that this is a matter of extreme vendetta where a minor has been persecuted in a frivolous case purely based on the allegations of a private person. The police in Malvan acted without any direct evidence and have gone to the shocking extent of taking coercive action against a minor child and his family members merely based on the statement of a private person. Further, the municipal authorities in Malvan town took the State vendetta further by demolishing the house and the shop of the minor child’s father without any notice in a brazen manner violative of his right to life and right to livelihood guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” Mr. Gokhale stated in his letter, seeking that the top court “take up this matter suo moto for issuing appropriate directions to the concerned authorities”.
Giving the details of the incident, he stated, “A police case was registered by the Malvan Police Station against a 15-year-old minor boy and his parents for allegedly ‘raising anti-India slogans’ inside his house during the match. The said case was registered by Malvan Police Station purely on the statement of a private complainant who claimed that he ‘heard the slogans while walking outside the house of the accused’. There is absolutely no evidence presented by the complainant for his allegation. Further, the complainant has alleged that he merely overheard the said incident from ‘inside the house’ of the accused and not in any public place.”
“Despite this, the Malvan Police Station arrested the 15-year-old minor boy and his father. Further, it has been reported in the media that the lawyers’ association in Malvan decided that no counsel would offer representation to the accused boy and his father. The Ld. Magistrate was pleased to release the minor boy and his father on bail after they were produced in court. Subsequently, in a shocking manner demonstrating State vendetta, the municipal authorities of Malvan town went on to demolish the residence of the minor boy as well as the scrap shop of his father without even presenting them with a notice or any prior intimation,” the letter stated.
He sought an immediate intervention of the top court, alleging that “the brazen act was violative of the minor’s father’s right to life and right to livelihood guaranteed under the Constitution of India”.
Published – February 28, 2025 11:10 pm IST