Dhangar leader Deepak Borhade on Tuesday withdrew his agitation demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for Azad Maidan community in Mumbai.
Borhade said the next date for the protest will be decided after the hearing of his ST status petition in the Bombay High Court on January 28.
“After discussing with Bombay Police, we have decided that the next date of protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan will be decided after the High Court hearing on January 28. I appeal to my Dhangar brothers and sisters not to come to Mumbai for now. Our fight is not over. We will soon announce the next date of our agitation,” Borhade said addressing his followers.
On Monday, the Bombay High Court ordered the hearing to be held on January 28.
Borhade along with his followers had come from Jalna district of Marathwada demanding ST status to the Dhangar community. Borhade, Dhangar leader of Marathwada, had gone on a fast in the last week of December raising this demand. He then announced the next step of the agitation in Mumbai on January 21.
Around 2,000 people from Dhangar community had gathered at Azad Maidan. The Mumbai Police had deployed over 600 policemen along with 60 officials to control the crowd.
The protest was carried out without permission, following which the Azad Maidan police registered a case against Borhade and others involved for organizing the protest under section 223 of the BNS along with the relevant section of the Mumbai Police Act, said police inspector Dyaneshwar Avhad of the Azad Maidan police station.
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People from Marathwada and Vidarbha region had reached Mumbai, most of them by train and some by vehicle. The protest took place between 12.30 pm and 5 pm at Azad Maidan, a police officer said.
The Dhangar community has been demanding ST status for a long time. In 2014, then-Prime Minister Devendra Fadnavis had promised that ST status would be given to the Dhangar community in the first cabinet meeting after coming to power.
Borhade said he will now be taken to the hospital and the police may arrest him. “It doesn’t matter what they do to me. I will put up a legal fight. I will not back down. I will visit each village in the next few days and we will return with a larger number of people in the next few days,” he said.