IN false anticipation of a big victory for the BJP-NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, the police and administration of Palghar district, dancing to the tune of deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, had been threatening people, and bullying the common tribals including women. Harassment of CPI(M) activists by BJP goons, encroachment on their land, filing false cases against them was rampant. CPI(M) leaders were their main target. BJP goons and the police were working hand in hand, in a notoriously corrupt nexus. These goons did not even spare CPI(M) district secretary and AIKS leader Kiran Gahala, and CPI(M) district secretariat member, AIDWA CEC member and Talasari tehsil panchayat samiti president Sunita Shingda.

People had been resenting this for many months and planned an action to teach a lesson to the police and the administration. The Lok Sabha election results in Maharashtra, in which MVA-INDIA resoundingly defeated BJP-NDA, came as a shot in the arm. Under the banner of the CPI(M) Thane-Palghar district committee, two large protest rallies were taken out respectively on the police stations and tehsil offices of Talasari and Vikramgad on June 12 and June 19, 2024.

On June 12, after extensive campaigning for a week, thousands of women and men from Talasari and Dahanu tehsils marched right inside the tehsil and police station, shouting loud slogans against the police. All the officials immediately called the delegation and discussed the issues. The police inspector was made to accept that he has been favouring a few, which led to the encroachment of land of our leader in the area, Sunita Shingda, by a local BJP goon. He and his BJP panel were resoundingly defeated recently by the CPI(M) in the Karajgaon gram panchayat election. BJP and its goons could not digest this and dared to target Sunita. The march ended only after an assurance that all grievances would be resolved immediately.

On the polling day of the Lok Sabha election, a BJP goon and his equally thuggish accomplices were distributing money in Dolhari village of Vikramgad tehsil and nearby areas. When the Party's district secretary Kiran Gahala objected to it, they tried to beat him up. Kiran Gahala went to the Vikramgad police station to file a complaint. Instead of filing it, the sub-inspector registered only his NC and forced him to sign it. Not only that, he kept him waiting for three hours in the police station and then filed a chapter case against him only.

Hence, on June 19, a large CPI(M) rally of people from Vikramgad, Jawhar and Wada tehsils marched to the Vikramgad police station and tehsil, despite heavy rain, to protest against the police sub-inspector who supported the BJP goons, who already had many cases of extortion against them. The procession jammed the police station after moving along the main road in Vikramgad, demanding strict action against the gangster and his partners in crime.