Cops spoil Sambhaji roadshow

The much talked-about rally, organised by about 30 Maratha organisations to celebrate the 406th birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji&#14...

The much talked-about rally, organised by about 30 Maratha organisations to celebrate the 406th birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s mother Jijabai, proved to be a damp squib as effective police control ensured a low turnout.

Pune Police, which had geared up for a gathering of around 25,000 people, said the turnout was at best 5,000. While opinions differed on the reasons for the lacklustre show, the good news was that the day passed off peacefully without any untoward incident.

Organisers of the rally, including the Sambhaji Brigade, came out with various reasons for the low turnout — that police prevented people from the outskirts of Pune from reaching the city, that many could not make it as it was a working day, and lastly, that the number of people who had attended a similar rally on Monday at Sindkhedraja, Jijabai’s birthplace, were not ready to travel the distance to Pune again.

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Police officials, however, claimed the real reason for the low attendance was the reluctance of people to be associated with an organisation when 72 of its members were in judicial custody for the attack on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI).

Police also spared no effort with security arrangements. Ten assistant commissioners, 16 inspectors, 52 sub-inspectors and nearly 700 policemen and a company of SRPF had been deployed in the vicinity of the Shivaji Vyayam Mandal grounds, where the rally was held, and Lal Mahal.

The meeting went on from 2.30 pm till 6 pm. Shivmahotsav Samiti Ravindra Malwadkar read out a resolution urging the state government to withdraw all charges and free the members of the Brigade arrested for the BORI attack.