A BJP lawmaker in Gujarat is on camera thrashing and kicking a woman on a street, ignoring her screams, until a man stops him with a blow. In a video clip circulated on social media, the attacker, a BJP legislator named Balram Thawani, is seen assaulting the woman who was reportedly participating in a protest over water supply in Naroda in Ahmedabad. Balram Thawani then claims that it was merely an accident and follows the Apology Drama. After this incident, Thawani makes the woman his Rakhi sister.
Police to take the action as both parties had initially filed a complaint soon after the incident.
Nitu Tejwani, the woman who was brutally beaten is a supporter of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and has filed a complaint against her attacker. According to witnesses, she was already being manhandled by another man when Balram Thawani came out of his office and joined him in beating her.
The incident took place on Sunday.
“I went to meet Balram to discuss the lack of proper water in the area. Without saying anything, he (Balram) came and started slapping and thrashing me. When my husband saw this, he came to my rescue. Immediately, some of Balram’s supporters came from inside and started thrashing my husband with sticks. Women who were protesting along with me were also brutally beaten up by Balram and his supporters,” she has been quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Balram Thawani has been quoted in reports as saying that he had hit out “in self-defence”, that he was attacked in his office first. The woman, he said in those report, was hurt by accident. He has now apologized, according to ANI.
“I got swayed by emotions, I accept the mistake, it was not intentional. I have been in politics for last 22 years, such a thing has never happened before. I will say sorry to her,” Mr Thawani told ANI.
The Congress has demanded an apology from the state’s ruling
BJP.“The
video which surfaced is very painful and should be condemned in strictest
terms. Women need to be protected from the leaders of BJP. BJP should take
strict against this MLA. The Chief Minister as the leader should
apologise,”
said Rajeev Satav, the Congress party’s Gujarat-In-Charge.
