Maratha Kranti Morcha takes to Pune's streets, demands arrest of rape accused, reservation

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], Sept. 25 (ANI): The Maratha Kranti Morcha that has been taking out silent marches in various towns in Maharashtra for the past eight days in support of their demand of reservation for Marathi people took out a silent march here on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people, including students, women, youth and leaders, participated in the march under the umbrella of Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha, which was led by girls. They submitted a charter of their demand to Pune District Collector Saurabh Rao. Their major demands included Kopardi minor girl gang-rape and murder culprits be punished at earliest; Maratha community reservation issue to be resolved at earliest; and Atrocity Act to be amended so as to curb its misuse among others. The march that lasted for three hours, starting from Deccan Gymkhana to Council hall, alleged that the political parties of using their demands for winning elections and paying no heed to their demands. Over the last one month following the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl Maratha girl at Kopardi in Ahmednagar district two months ago. The victim was allegedly gangraped and murdered by four Dalit youth on 13 July when she was returning after meeting her grandfather. The accused gangraped her violently, before throttling her to death, following which the Kranti Morcha took out silent marches in Akola, Nanded, Beed, Osmanabad, Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Jalna districts and garnered huge support, forcing all political parties to take note of their grievances. On Saturday, Nasik witnessed around 15 lakh Marathas from all walks of life participating in the silent march, similar protests were held in Amravati on Thursday and in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday that sent Maharashtra politicians in tizzy and sparked a public outrage as well as a political slugfest in the state. (ANI)