Pune: The Pune Rural police late on Saturday night registered a case against sitting MLA and NCP's Maval candidate Sunil Shelke on the charge of violating the model code of conduct during his election rally in Lonavla in the evening. This is the second poll code violation case against Shelke within four days. The Pimpri Chinchwad police had registered a case against him on November 5 for campaigning after the 10pm deadline in Shirgaon.
The Lonavla City police on Saturday booked Shelke and his 18 supporters under sections 352 (intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace), 3 (5) [common intention] and 223 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). TOI made several calls to Shelke to seek his reaction, but he did not respond to them. An officer from the Lonavla City police said the returning officer of the Maval constituency had given permission to Shelke to campaign in and around Lonavla from 9am to 5pm.
"The route, timings and the area of the campaign rally were specifically mentioned in the permission," he said. The officer said Independent candidate Bapu Bhedge was given permission to hold a campaign rally in Lonavla from 5pm. It was to start from a temple at Bhangarwadi in Lonavla.
"According to the permission, Shelke's rally was to be in Indrayaninagar in Lonavla at 5 pm. But his supporters started heading towards the temple in Bhangarwadi. Our team on bandobast duty told them not to change the route, as .
