By Geeta Seshu
When journalist Sandip Mahajan was mercilessly beaten up by alleged supporters of Pachora MLA Kishor Appa Patil (Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena) on Aug 9, 2023, he never imagined that it would be an uphill task to get justice. But his struggle even to get a First Information Report (FIR) registered exemplifies the fragile state of free speech in Maharashtra.
Despite clear videographic evidence of the assault that went viral, Mahajan has, so far, only got a slip of paper from the police in Pachora in Jalgaon district of North Maharashtra that a non-cognisable offence was registered.
“Everyone saw the video of the assault. You can hear the insults – 72 abuses – as they beat me. They pulled me off my bike and tore my clothes, dragging me on the ground. Yet, police said I had no injuries,” Mahajan told Free Speech Collective.
The three assailants repeatedly threatened him for questioning and criticising the MLA and warned him to remain silent or face danger to his life. Mahajan then knocked on the doors of every authority in the state to seek the registration of an FIR. He is now awaiting justice from the Jalgaon Sessions Court, when the case comes up for orders on Nov 11.
The twice-elected MLA from Pachora in Jalgaon district of North Maharashtra, Kishor Appa Patil is known to be close to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. He is also chairperson of the Ashirwad group of companies, prominent in Jalgaon for its agro-based cotton, banana & sugarcane Industries. He is seeking re-election from the same constituency in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
The editor of a newspaper “Dhyeya News” and a YouTube channel by the same name, Mahajan had merely questioned the false claims of the MLA in response to peoples’ demands for a fast-track court to investigate the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old minor girl in Gondgaon, in Jalgaon district.
Patil reportedly claimed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde would appoint Advocate Ujwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case. “But the Chief Minister gave no assurances so all I asked was ‘why this nautanki, this chamkogiri’ (this showing off, this grandstanding)?,” he said.
“Till date, leave alone the assault on me, even the family of the girl has also not been given any justice. They are really very poor people and have no way of securing justice,” he said, adding that the local media had also failed to take up the matter, either out of fear or because they supported the MLA.
Fear of reprisal from the powerful MLA also affected local lawyers, says Mahajan. “Lawyers from here were reluctant to represent me. Finally, I was lucky to get a lawyer from outside Jalgaon to represent me in the Jalgaon Sessions Court. Even then, the court notice could not be served on the defence for eight months. Dates for hearings went by without any progress.
Finally, in exasperation, the Additional Sessions Judge, Sharad R Pawar, who was hearing the case, posted the case for final arguments on October 20, 2024 and for orders on November 11, 2024.
Earlier, in August 2023, Mahajan had approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court to seek the registration of an FIR. Mahajan’s plea also said that police also refused to register a complaint as per the provisions of the ‘Maharashtra Media Persons and Media Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2017.
The court issued notices to the State Director General of Police, the Special Inspector General of Police of Nashik Zone and the Superintendent of Police of Jalgaon.
On September 13, 2023, Justices R.G. Avachat and Sanjay Deshmukh maintained that Mahajan could avail of equally efficacious alternate remedy under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code. The matter now comes up on November 12, 2024.
Several Journalists’ organisations had condemned the attack. On August 17,2023, The Press Council of India, a statutory body, took suo motu cognisance of the incident and called for a report “at the earliest from the Government of Maharashtra” and even instituted a fact-finding committee. But till date, says Mahajan, no report has been forthcoming though the Press Council member and senior journalist Prakash Dubey had met him.
Meanwhile, Patil is the Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate for Pechora in the forthcoming Assembly elections. His main rival this time is Vaishali Suryavanshi, his cousin and daughter of former MLA, Tatyasaheb Patil, candidate for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
The assault on the journalist continues to be a major talking point for the opposition.
Mahajan says that what rankles the most is that the assault took place when he was returning after covering an event to commemorate the Quit India Movement, in the middle of the Damodar Lotan Mahajan Chowk, a square named after his freedom-fighter father.
“I’m not going to give up. I come from a family of fighters. My father was a minor when the British arrested him for distributing pamphlets for independence in his school. After the assault, Patil tried to defame me and discredit me. But I am an independent journalist and don’t need his favours. People know my reputation. I don’t even take gifts or advertisements for my newspaper. I will continue to fight for justice,” he said.
(Click here to read Free Speech Collective’s focus on free speech in Maharashtra, ‘Maharashtra: Impunity, Curbs on Public Protests and Repressive Lawfare, Major Instances of Free Speech Violations in Maharashtra 2023-24′)
