YESTERDAY around 12.30 AM, I, Ranjit Mahanti experienced severe cramp in my stomach. Pain was such that I sat on the stairs of Park Site Police Station and one of my leg was on ground. I could not even get up. Suddenly a police vehicle came and they tried to park the vehicle near to stairs. They kept shouting on me to remove my leg but I just could not move it. They did not even try to stop the vehicle and it would have crushed my leg or injured me severely. Scared of being injured, I used whatever strength and moved up one stair and saved my leg at the very last moment. The vehicle stopped and it belched a lot of smoke on my face. It was unbearable. No policemen helped me. After resting for five minutes, I asked a policeman to call my friend Krishna Pujari as my mobile’s battery was down. Krishna Pujari came with 4-5 other friends. They asked policemen to take me to hospital but they refused. My friend Krishna Pujari immediately dialled DCP Akhilesh Singh for help but he refused. He said we did not detain him. He was there with his wish, so we wont help. Look after him yourselves and disconnected the call.
The behaviour of policemen during this entire chain of events has been shocking and appalling at the very least. The behaviour and attitude of DCP Akhilesh Singh was nothing short of inhuman. Differences aside, this callous attitude of not even caring for a fellow human being in pain and distress would have been enough to move any individual to help. Yet Akhilesh Singh used all his clout as a DCP to do the exact opposite. He did not let any other policemen offer any kind of help or take me to a hospital despite my deteriorating condition. “Humne use detain nahin kiya tha. Tum khud strike pe paithe the. Apna khud dekho. Khud hospital jao,” he said.
My friends called an autodriver and took me to hospital. Doctor gave me 3 injections. He suggested that I should not continue my starvation as it will be severely detrimental to my health. I finally returned home around 1.30. So my quest remained unfullfilled.
On June 4, 2018 at around 6 pm I went to NCH Colony, Kanjur Marg West, Mumbai-78 to cover a story related to death of a worker by electrocution . As I was entering the colony, the security personnel started altercation with me about an entry pass & misbehaved with me.
I tried to explain to them that I was merely conducting my professional duty and the stopping will result in the report too. As they heard my name Ranjit Mahanti and organization name ABI they said, “achchha to tu hi hai Ranjit Mahanti. Maderchod tujhe to hum khoj rahe the.” They then became very angry and Security Incharge Suresh Awasthi, Subhash Yadav, Vinod Pandey & Pabbi dragged me to security office, locked me in the room, confiscated my mobile phone, footwear & identity card & beat me severely and abused me.
I have in the past reported and exposed several times in the past the corrupt acts and misdeeds of Security Incharge of Suresh Awasthi and Rear Admiral of the Navy, Sanjeev Kale. While I was being beaten up, Awasthi and his men mentioned several times about how Sanjeev Kale wanted to take revenge on me for printing articles about his corrupt practices. Awasthi also mentioned that this will definitely happen again if I go on to print even one more article about Kale and Awasthi.
The security personnel were saying, “tu hamari colony ke bare me bahut likhta rahta hai. Admiral Sanjeev Kale saheb ne tujhe sabak sikhane ko bola hai.”
Coincidently, a person named Purushottam Singh witnessed the entire incidents. He complained on police helpline number 100. A little later a policeman reached. On his request security personnel opened the door. Police rescued me and then I went to Parksite police station around 7pm.
I was informed that divisional ACP went to colony and had meeting with security personals for half an hour. I was shocked that security personnels were also called in police station and were served Biryani and tea in temporary cabin of Senior Inspector Vilas Jadhav. First police registered NC against me and let them free. After lots of request late night police recorded my statement, registered NC and sent for medical checkup. Since then I was at police station and on hunger strike to register my FIR against security personnel, but failed. Police officers including Vilas Jadhav, ACP Shekhar Tawade and DCP Akhilesh Singh made it ego issue and refused to register FIR.
DCP feigns ignorance and actor
Akhilesh Singh blatantly lied and misguided journalits saying that no such incident had happened and that Ranjit Mahanti was not thrashed. Dr Ranjit Patil, Honorable Home Minister for State called Akhilesh Singh. Suddenly Akhilesh Singh turned actor.. He said to Mr. Patil- “Mere paas details nahin hai. Collect karke inform karta hoon.” ABI requests government of Maharashtra to give ‘Most Ignorant IPS award’ to DCP Akhilesh Singh, this year. Alternatively for his superior acting and lying abilities he can also be considered for best actor award by film fraternity.