The Maharashtra Police in Hinjewadi on Thursday registered a case against women rights activist Trupti Desai, her husband and others for caste atrocity. Charges were framed against them under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, for allegedly assaulting a former member of Desai’s Bhumata Ranragini Brigade, PTI reported.
They were also charged for robbery, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint. The incident is believed to have taken place on June 27 near Pune’s Balewadi Stadium.
Vijay Makasare, a doctor from Ahmednagar district, alleged in his complaint that Desai had approached him to join her organisation a few months ago. “However, later I realised that the functioning of the outfit was not transparent and the intentions to run the organisation were mala fied. So I decided to part ways,” he said in his complaint.
He further alleged that Desai was bothered by his resignation and had requested him to take her to Mumbai in his car for some work on June 27, after which he was beaten up by her husband and four others on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway.
Desai and her husband then snatched his mobile phones from him saying it had “crucial evidence” against her, Makasare claimed, adding that they had passed casteist remarks and also robbed him of his gold chain worth Rs 15,000 and Rs 27,000 in cash.
Desai denies allegations
The activist has denied his claims and said Makasare was trying to malign her. She said she had turned Makasare away after he had approached her to become a member of her Bhumata Brigade.
“He filed the case out of a grudge over his non-induction into the organisation,” she said.
Desai had led an agitation in 2015 to gain entry for women in the Shani Shignapur Temple in Ahmednagar. She had led similar protests for women’s entry into Kolhapur’s Mahalakshmi Temple and the Lord Shiva Temple near Nashik.
In February this year, Desai and three members of the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade were detained for trying to beat up a murder accused in Pune.
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