Aurangabad Police to take action against Raj Thackeray: Maharashtra DGP

Maharashtra Director General of Police Ranish Seth on Tuesday said that the Aurangabad police will soon be taking action against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray in connection with his recent speech in Aurangabad.

Seth made the statement while addressing a press conference at his office in Colaba, during which he also spoke about the State police’s preparations to maintain law and order in Maharashtra in the days to come.

Answering a question about Thackeray’s speech in his recent rally in Aurangabad, Seth said, "The Commissioner of Police, Aurangabad is looking into the matter. He has studied the contents of the speech and is examining legal options. Appropriate action will be taken by him.”

Thackeray has issued a ‘deadline’ of May 4 for mosques to remove loudspeakers mounted over their premises, failing which he has threatened to play Hanuman Chalisa in front of the mosques via loudspeakers. Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil met Seth in this regard earlier on Tuesday.

“The State Home Minister took a review meeting today pertaining to law and order in the State. All police commissionerates have been given clear orders to maintain law and order in their respective jurisdictions. All leaves have been cancelled. Apart from our own personnel, we have also deployed 87 companies of the State Reserve Police Force and over 30,000 personnel from the Home Guards. All of them have been instructed to do whatever it takes to ensure that law and order in the State is not disturbed,” Seth said.

The State top cop added that preventive action has been taken against over 15,000 people so far, while warning notices under the Code of Criminal Procedure have been issued to more than 13,000 persons.