Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis came under sharp criticism in the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday during a heated debate on the state’s deteriorating law and order situation.
Opposition leaders alleged the violence in Nagpur was ‘pre-planned’ and demanded a judicial probe into the incident. However, Fadnavis sidestepped direct responses to these allegations, drawing further criticism from rival parties.
A total of 107 accused have been arrested in connection with the Nagpur riots, police confirmed on Tuesday. Among them, 12 were minors and thus not taken into custody.
While addressing concerns about the rising crime rate, the CM pointed out that in 2023, a total of 2,83,037 crimes were reported, but has decreased in 2024. Between 2022 and 2024, action was taken under the MCOCA Act against 600 individuals. The conviction rate has now increased to 50%, compared to just 9% in 2009. The detection rate for crimes against women has reached 93.72%, while for rape cases, it stands at 98.59%. Since 2024, 99.98% of accused in rape cases have been found to be known to the victim. The charge sheet filing rate in rape cases is now 94.1%, up from 45% in 2020. A record has been set for achieving conviction within 48 hours. The response time for emergency calls to 112 has improved to 6.34 seconds. For cybercrime-related complaints, people can now call the helpline number 1945.
Responding to the opposition’s allegations of rift in the Mahayuti alliance, Fadnavis said, “No matter how hard you try, the three of us Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar and I will not trip each other up. We are running the state by working hand in hand. We believe in taking everyone along, which is why we are under greater scrutiny. But I want to tell these people no matter how much you try to create rifts, it will be of no use.”
Reacting on Prashant Koratkar and Rahul Solapurkar’s controversial remarks about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the CM stated, “Even if my own relative is a criminal, I will not hesitate to ensure they are punished. We arrested Koratkar. Now, tell me, who gave him shelter? Any insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj will not be tolerated. When your government was in power, you were throwing journalists into jail left and right.”
Speaking about the death of Somnath Suryavanshi, Fadnavis stated that the post-mortem report is usually based on the viscera analysis. However, there is a discrepancy between the viscera report and the post-mortem findings. While the post-mortem report determines the extent of organ damage, the viscera report comes later.” Fadnavis assured the Assembly that the culprits responsible for sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s murder would receive the highest possible punishment.
