A land supplier accused of mowing down a journalist in Maharashtra`s Ratnagiri district additionally faces 4 extra crook instances, together with one wherein he allegedly attempted to run over an anti-refinery activist, a police respectable stated on Friday. Local activists who’re protesting towards a proposed refinery close to Rajapur withinside the coastal Ratnagiri district claimed that had the police acted sternly in the sooner instances, the trendy incident might have been avoided.
Journalist Shashikant Warishe (48) changed into severely injured on Monday whilst an SUV allegedly pushed through Pandharinath Amberkar hit his -wheeler close to a petroleum pump at Rajapur, a few 440 km from Mumbai.
Warishe died in clinic the following day. An article written through Warishe towards Amberkar had regarded in a nearby Marathi newspaper at the morning of the incident.
It has been alleged that Amberkar, now arrested and booked for homicide, used to threaten any individual who adversarial land acquisition for a proposed refinery withinside the vicinity.
In April 2020, Warishe’s SUV had allegedly hit the -wheeler of activist Manoj Mayekar in Nate vicinity of the district. Mayekar spent weeks in clinic because of the injuries, stated a police respectable. Mayekar changed into amongst activists against Barsu refinery project.
An FIR changed into registered towards Amberkar after the incident and an ordeal is now underway. However, there has been no allegation then that it had something to do with Mayekar’s competition to the proposed refinery, the police respectable stated.
Of the opposite 3 preceding instances towards Amberkar, had been of attack and rioting even as a 3rd one changed into approximately violation of COVID-associated norms, he stated. He changed into convicted withinside the COVID-19-associated case.
Activists of the Barsu-Solgaon Panchakroshi Refinery Virodhi Sanghatna on Friday claimed that Amberkar and his aides had attacked them close to the Rajapur courtroom docket closing 12 months due to their competition to the refinery project.
Narendra Joshi, secretary of the organisation, instructed PTI that the incident came about on September 12, 2022. An FIR changed into registered withinside the case.
“If nearby police had taken the offence severely and had initiated stern movement towards Amberkar, he could now no longer have dared dedicate some other critical offence and Warishe could had been alive,” Joshi stated. Warishe wrote often towards the refinery project, he added.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, reporters staged a protest over Warishe’s homicide close to the Mantralaya, and demanded that the case be fast-tracked. They additionally demanded that the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act be invoked withinside the case.
