Lawyer who challenged Maratha quota attacked

MUMBAI: A 28-year-old man from Jalna,

Vaidyanath

Patil, allegedly attacked advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte outside the Bombay high court on Monday.


Advocates Jayashree Patil and Sadavarte have filed a petition challenging the newly enacted law that allows 16% reservation for the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category. The reservation bill was passed unanimously in both the assembly and council on November 29.

After hearing a petition in the Bombay high court, Vaidyanath allegedly attacked Sadavarte while he was talking to the media.

Vaidyanath is a taluka executive president of the

Sambhaji Brigade

.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha said it was standing behind Vaidyanath, who it claimed was beaten up first by some advocates. The morcha demanded cases be lodged against the advocates for thrashing Patil.

“We are with (Vaidyanath) Patil,” Virendra Patil, a convenor of the Maratha Kranti Morcha, said. “He did not attack Sadavarte, but in fact he was manhandled by a few advocates first while raising slogans. So, he was not at fault.”

Virendra said the advocates kept thrashing Vaidyanath even after the police had taken him into custody.

He said the Maratha community had held over 50 silent morchas without any violence and cooperated with the state to maintain law and order.

Another Maratha convenor, Aabasaheb Patil, also said that it was the advocates who manhandled Patil.

“If the police have detained (Vaidyanath) Patil, they should also detain advocates for beating him, which can be seen clearly in the television reports,” Patil said.

Poet and Dalit activist Pradnya Daya Pawar condemned the attack on Sadavarte.

“Nowadays, the fear of law does not exist,” Pawar said. “There are some incidents such as the attack on Kanhaiya Kumar outside Patiala House court complex, the reactions that erupted over the Supreme Court directives on Sabarimala Ayappa temple and the killing of a policeman in Bulandshahr that form a chain of instances showing that the government is covering up these attitude.”

She warned that more such cases might occur in the future as the Lok Sabha election was approaching.