Mumbai, Aug. 31: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray today threatened to brand Bihari migrants as “infiltrators” and force them out of Maharashtra if Bihar takes legal action against Mumbai police for arresting a person involved in the August 11 Azad Maidan violence from Sitamarhi.
Thackeray’s angry outburst came at a party convention ahead of a membership drive of MNS starting next week. He was reacting to a news report that former Bihar chief secretary Navin Kumar had written to Mumbai police commissioner threatening legal action for arresting a 19-year-old wanted youth from the Nepal border in Bihar without informing the state police.
“If the Bihar government creates hurdles in the path of police investigations, then my party would dub every Bihari in Maharashtra as an infiltrator and force them to out of the state,” said Thackeray in remarks that could come under the police scanner for being provocative.
In October 2008, Thackeray was arrested for a provocative speech that led to an attack on Bihari students who came to write a railway examination. Over 60 cases were filed against him subsequently.
Referring to the purported letter, Thackeray said: “The letter says that Mumbai police have to get in touch with the Bihar government before picking up any person from that state. If Mumbai crime branch picks up people from their state without the knowledge of the Bihar police, they would face legal action.
“The person who desecrated the Amar Jawan memorial (a soldier memorial located opposite the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station) was arrested from Bihar. I would like to tell the Bihar chief secretary that because of your state, the crime rate here has gone up,” said Thackeray, repeating remarks that he made at his rally on August 21 at Azad Maidan to condemn the attack on the Maharashtra police and the media on August 11.
In his rally speech, he had blamed illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and migrants from UP and Bihar for the August 11 attacks stating that Mumbaikars would never dare to attack the Mumbai police who provide them security.
Slamming Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for his silence on the issue, Thackeray asked: “Why is Nitish Kumar not saying anything? Where have the leaders from the state and Delhi gone? Why was the chief secretary not slammed for his remarks?”
Nineteen-year-old Abdul Qadir Ansari, a resident of Jogeshwari, was arrested by a Mumbai crime branch team on Monday from Sitarmarhi when he was trying to escape across the border to Nepal. Ansari was one of the two persons wanted for vandalising the Amar Jawan memorial.
