Mumbai News Live Updates: Protests intensify outside Mumbra police station after molestation case filed against NCP’s Jitendra Awhad – The Indian Express

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad announced Monday that he was resigning as a legislator after the the Mumbra police in Maharashtra registered a case against him for allegedly manhandling a woman activist of the BJP in a crowd while leaving from a function. This was the second First Information Report (FIR) registered against the Mumbra MLA within a week. He was last week arrested and booked for allegedly stopping the screening of a movie at a Thane cinema hall. “Police have filed two fake cases against me in the last 72 hours and that too under Section 354 of the IPC. This is the murder of democracy. I will fight. I have decided to resign from my MLA post” Awhad tweeted early on Monday. The NCP leader said that he was being targeted with “false cases”.

In other news, plagued by vacancies and stretched by additional duties since a change in government, a special Maharashtra police unit that guards VIPs is launching a recruitment drive for nearly 450 new personnel later this month. The Special Protection Unit (SPU) of Maharashtra Police has been facing additional stress since July when security of all legislators and parliamentarians affiliated to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp was upgraded to ‘Y+’ security.