Police detained leaders of Vidarbha Rajya Andolan Samiti, including Wamanrao Chatap and Ram Newle, and others on Tuesday morning while they were participating in the ‘sit-down’ agitation launched by the samiti to press the pending demand for formation of separate State of Vidarbha at Chandika Mandir, Shahid Chowk, Itwari.
A press note issued by the samiti said that the cops forcibly detained them, damaged pandal materials, and sealed the mandir. The samiti launched the indefinite agitation from August Kranti Din yesterday to press the demands for separate Vidarbha, weaving off electricity bills during corona period, reducing prices of petrol, diesel, and gas cylinders.
It said that when the workers had started gathering at the site in the morning, police vans arrived there and cornered the workers. First they detained Chatap and Newle and took them to Tehsil Police Station. The press note alleged that the police dragged Mukesh Masurkar and others workers towards the vans to dump them.
The police detained Ranjana Mamurde, Rekha Nimje, Usha Lambat, Vrushabh Wankhede, Jyoti Khandekar, Ganesh Sharma, Shailesh Dharmadhikari, Sudam Rathod, Raju Thakur and others. The workers charged that cops forcibly took Usha Lambat, Ranjana Mamarde and others while in the process they sustained minor injuries and got their clothes torn.
The workers warned that they would not tolerate scuttling of the stir by using force and intensify the agitation in the near future.
