Unmesh Gujarath
Sprouts Exclusive

Local Konkan residents have strongly opposed the refinery project at Ratnagiri. The police administration has actually sent notices to the prominent activists of this movement in order to break this protest; however, no concrete action has been taken against the main accused in the journalist Shashikant Warishe murder case and the land mafia in his camp. The sensational but trustworthy information received by the Sprouts Special Investigation Team.

The company Ratnagiri Refinery And Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL) wanted to conduct a survey for the refinery project at Ratnagiri. However, permission from the local Gram Panchayat has to be obtained to carry out this survey. Apart from this, other conditions have to be fulfilled. However, the employees of this company tried to enter the village without taking any of this permission or fulfilling the requirements, which was vehemently opposed by the villagers.

It was found that the management of RRPCL, which got angry, joined hands with the police and filed a case against these activists. Not only this but show-cause notices have been issued to the prominent workers, showing that they are planning to obstruct government work and endanger the employees’ lives.

According to the documents sought through RTI, the survey conducted by RRPCL was conducted illegally. The investigation team at Sprouts has come to know that, through this illegal survey, some excuses were made and notices were sent based on that.

The Special Investigation Team has also collected information that land mafia leader Pandharinath Amberkar has sold lands in many places by making bogus affidavits of the heirs of the deceased. Amberkar was adept at selling illegal land. After that, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party about a year ago. After that, he started this clandestine business with more vigor.

Amberkar along with Abhijit Gurav, Sanket Khadpe, Raja Kajve, Sunil Rane, Vinayak Kadam, Ashpal Haju, Purushottam Khambal, Nandu Chavan, Gaurav Paranjape, Saurav Khadpe threaten the local Bhoomiputras and grab their lands. Due to this, the villagers have also filed complaints against him.

FIRs have also been lodged against some of these people, but due to political pressure, the police administration is taking a passive role. Actually, if the police had resisted this pressure and acted on time, then the murder of Shashikant Warishe would have been avoided.

Shiv Sena leader, MP Sanjay Raut tweeted a picture of Maharashtra Industries Minister and Guardian Minister of Ratnagiri District Uday Samant and prime accused Pandharinath Amberkar. This photo and the lines in it suggest that Samant was the mastermind behind the murder.

The detailed news about this was first released by ‘Sprouts’. After that, Samant immediately announced to give 25 lakh rupees to Varishe’s family. Actually, this announcement was expected to be made by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde or Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis. But Samant made this announcement and tried desperately to save his own shame.

Not only this, Samant promptly gave his own interview to ‘ABP Majha’. The questions and answers were ‘managed,’ even a small kid would say. Social activist advocate Dilip Inkar and other Konkan residents also expressed their outrage that this interview was managed, i.e. ‘paid’. Actually, a journalist among us was killed, and doing a ‘paid’ interview in this way was like eating butter on the scalp of the deceased.