INDIA: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad and his people entered the screening of the Marathi movie “Har Har Mahadev” and assaulted the audience.
As per reports, they forced the audience to leave the theatre and some supporters badly thrashed a person who tried opposing them.
According to the NCP wing, the movie presents the wrong history of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
A case has been logged at Vartaknagar police station under sections 141,143,146,149,323,504 of IPC and section 37/135 of Mumbai Police. The registered case claimed NCP supporters forcibly closed the show of the Har Har Mahadev film in Thane mall last night.
Following this incident, film director Abhijeet Shirish Deshpande decided to hold a press conference on November 8. Deshpande wants to communicate his discomfort towards the action, calling it ‘unethical’.
The movie cast Sharad Kelkar as the main lead essaying the role of a commander, which is inspired by the true story of Maratha commander Baji Prabhu Deshpande’s legendary rear guard battle that enabled Shivaji’s escape from the Sinhala Fort.
Extending support to the entire cast of the film, Maharashtra BJP leader Atul Bhatkhalkar said, “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal Khan. This was shown in the movie ‘Har Har Mahadev’.
That’s why Jitendra Awhad tried stopping the movie. We demand the immediate arrest of Jitendra Awhad. There should be an FIR against him for hurting the national sentiments.”
The BJP leader continued slamming Awhad and said, “Jitendra Awhad repeatedly takes the law into his own hands. Whenever it comes to nationalist ideas, he makes an effort to agitate against them. The BJP demands strict action against him.”
Meanwhile, Vinay Rathod, DCP Zone-5, in his statement said, “Following the incident, we have beefed up security at cinema theatres and are in the process of filing an offence for obstructing the screening of the show. So far, we have not received any complaints from people who had come to see the movie about being assaulted.“
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