Maharashtra: Journalist assaulted after publishing article critical of CM Eknath Shinde

A video has gone viral wherein 4 men can be seen toppling a bike and repeatedly beating and kicking an individual who fell as a result of the toppling. The victim has been identified as Sandeep Mahajan, a journalist who runs a local newspaper named Dyay in the Pachora town located in the Jalgaon district in Maharashtra. Sandeep has his own Youtube channel as well. 

Journalist Sandeep Mahajan was badly assaulted by Shinde factions Shiv Sena MLA Kishor Patil’s workers cum goons cos Mahajan raised 8 yrs old girl rape & murder case & asked questions to MLA Patil & CM Eknath Shinde & demanded justice. Earlier same MLA abused him over the phone. pic.twitter.com/0QahochcFt

— Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) August 10, 2023

Recently a brutal rape and murder case had surfaced in the Jalgaon district. A 19 year old raped his 8 year old neighbour and beat her to death. Much furore was caused over the incident across the district. Accusations were made over the lack of police action on the incident. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met with the victim’s family and promised strict action. Sandeep referred to this as tokenistic in his publication. This irked the local MLA Kishor Patil who called Sandeep up and hurled abuses at him. Post this, the assault on Sandeep occurred. 

Kishor Patil has however distanced himself from the incident seeing he has no role in the violence perpetrated although he has admitted to calling him which he stated he was completely justified in doing. Opposition leaders ranging from NCP, Congress and the Uddhav Thackery faction of the Shiv Sena condemned this incident.