Mumbai, Aug 22 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party Wednesday filed a police complaint here against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for his allegedly derogatory remarks against state party chief Abu Asim Azmi.
The party also dared Thackeray to prove his allegations, made during a rally at Azad Maidan here Tuesday, that there were lakhs of Bangladeshis living in Azmi’s Bhiwandi constituency in the adjoining Thane district.
The police complaint against Thackeray was given by the Samajwadi Party youth wing chief Syed Zakirhussain Chand to Azad Maidan police for using allegedly derogatory language against Azmi.
Addressing reporters, Azmi said: “I shall give him (Thackeray) two crore rupees if he shows even one lakh Bangladeshis or Pakistanis living in Bhiwandi.”
He even displayed an account-payee cheque of Rs.2 crore drawn in favour of Thackeray on Citizen Credit Co-Operative Bank Ltd, jointly signed by him and another signatory.
Azmi dared Thackeray to prove his charges or quit politics. “I shall quit politics if he can prove his charge. If not, then he must quit.”
He said that police should take action against the MNS for taking out the Tuesday procession from Girgaum Chowpatty to Azad Maidan though it had not been permitted.
Referring to Thackeray displaying at Tuesday’s rally a purported Bangladeshi passport which was found from Azad Maidan after the Aug 11 Muslim groups’ procession, and then throwing it away, Azmi demanded an inquiry into the matter.
“Throwing away the passport is a serious offence and must be probed,” Azmi urged.
He congratulated Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik and his team for exercising restraint during the Aug 11 procession by Muslim groups against Assam riots, which turned violent and left two dead.
Azmi claimed that the Aug 11 incident was the handiwork of the drugs mafia and that the other culprits involved in it had joined the procession much later.
