20 July,2015 03:24 PM IST | | Tanvi Deshpande
Chavan family, which had filed FIR against alleged assailants, is ready to reconcile, but wants other side to make first move; other side is ready for truce if Chavans retract case, delete ‘defamatory’ post on social media
After a tense 72 hours, the tension seems to be easing in Dahisar's Bona Venture society where allegations of food fascism were made on Thursday.
A crowd had gathered in front of the Bona Venture building on Thursday. File pic
The Chavan family, which was allegedly at the receiving end of a mob attack for eating non-vegetarian food and had filed an FIR against the assailants, is now ready to reconcile, but they are waiting for the other side to make the first move.
On the other hand, the accused, who have also complained to the police due to which a non-cognisable offence has been registered against the Chavans, said that they are ready to come to the talking table, only if the charges against them are retracted and an apology is issued.
Dirty brawl
mid-day had reported on Saturday, July 18 (âEggs, fish water and allegations fly thick and fast in society brawl') on how Bona Venture society in Dahisar (West) had been rocked by a major disturbance on Thursday night, with a housing society brawl snowballing into a political fight between Maharashtrians and Gujaratis, and vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
According to Supriya Chavan, who is a non-vegetarian, a mob of 30-40 people had attacked her and her family on Thursday night for eating non-vegetarian food. According to her, the mob attacked her family because the Chavans "don't mix with the others".
The residents had said that the Chavans had thrown fish water on them. They had said that Supriya had pelted them with eggs when they went to accost her. They had also filed a complaint against her, which was registered as a non-cognisable offence.
You first, please
"I'm scared for my brother who is alone at home when all of us are at work. We don't want to live under this stress. We are ready to reconcile if they give us a written assurance that this will not happen again," Supriya told mid-day yesterday.
She now wants the residents to issue a statement saying that they will not harass or taunt the Chavans in any way, including for their food habits. According to her, she has no problem in coming to talk to the other side, if they take the initiative and confirm that no such incident will happen again.
A resident, who is one of the accused, said, "We will not take any steps now. She should initiate the talks." This resident wants Chavan to retract the complaint she has filed against them, and also delete a Facebook entry she had posted about the incident, before any talks can happen.
"We will not take the first steps for sure. We have been wronged and a lot of injustice has been meted out to us. She should initiate a truce and we will accept it only if she retracts the case and deletes all the defamatory posts from Facebook," said the resident.
To this, Supriya stated that she will not retract the FIR, which means the society squabble may not end with an out-of-court settlement.
