A protestor who was injured in the violence during a shutdown called by the Maratha Kranti Morcha on Wednesday died at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital on Thursday. Hospital Dean Dr Mukund Tayade told PTI that 25-year-old Rohan Todkar had sustained multiple injuries to his head and limbs.
The protestors were demanding reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and education. The police resorted to teargas shells and baton-charges to disperse protestors in Kopar Khairane on Wednesday evening after some of them threw stones at vehicles and clashed with local people. Some protestors had also set a police outpost on fire.
These incidents took place after the protesting outfits had called off the shutdown, citing incidents of violence in Mumbai. The protestors had attacked public buses, blocked local trains, pelted stones, set ablaze tyres and forced shops to close during the shutdown in and around Mumbai on Wednesday.
Mobile internet services continue to remain suspended in Navi Mumbai. The services, which were suspended to prevent rumours from spreading on social media, are likely to be restored by Friday, an unidentified police officer said. “We asked several service providers to stop the internet services in Navi Mumbai as we did not want the situation to escalate further,” Manoj Doshi, the deputy commissioner of police (Navi Mumbai Crime Branch) told Mumbai Mirror.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will convene a meeting of all party leaders on Saturday to discuss the Maratha quota demand. “Invitation for tomorrow’s meeting, to be held at Vidhan Bhavan, will be sent across today [Friday],” Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil told PTI. “We will try and come up with a solution to the issue of Maratha reservation.” Earlier, Fadnavis said the government has taken note of the protests and was ready to talk to the Maratha community.
Six MLAs have resigned since the Maratha community demanded reservation. Bharat Bhalke (Congress), Seema Hirey and Rahul Aher (BJP) and Ramesh Kadam (Nationalist Congress Party) stepped down on Thursday, a day after Harshvardhan Jadhav (Shiv Sena) and Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar (NCP) quit.
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