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Ekvira Devi temple trust in violent dispute, many held

The temple is frequented by both Uddhav and Raj Thackeray

Pune Mirror Bureau

Posted On Monday, August 20, 2012 at 08:40:33 AM

Villagers stage a protest at the Karla Caves on Saturday

The Lonavla rural police have booked trustees of the Shri Aai Ekvira Devi Devsansthan Trust and their supporters for allegedly beating up a faction of the Trust on Saturday.

On Sunday, police invoked attempt to murder charges against the suspects, including Devsansthan’s president and Shiv Sena’s former MLA Anant Tare, local sarpanch Reshma Devkar, former Zilla Parishad member Milind Boture and other 161 persons. The incident took place in the picturesque Karla near Lonavla on Saturday afternoon.

The trust members are divided in two classes — the locals and the outsiders. Animosity between the groups had been simmering for about five months ago. Some trustees had claimed that they would resign from their posts and a meeting was called at noon on Saturday to discuss the issues.

Some local trust members claimed that there was large-scale corruption in the trust’s functioning and demanded Devkar’s resignation. The local group, which supports Devkar, demanded to dissolve the entire temple trust and had attempted to block the old Mumbai-Pune highway.

The local group gathered at Karla and the trustees (non-locals) were walking towards the Masaheb Meenatai Thackeray Bhaktidham when Devkar and other local trustees blocked their way. Both groups started abusing each other, despite police bandobast. Fisticuffs then broke out following which police booked all the trust members and their supporters in two separate cases.
 
The Aai Ekvira Devi is family diety to many residents of Konkan and Thane, including the Thackerays. Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray frequently visit the temple as it is their family diety.







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