Court steps in to check Sena’s eviction of Thane bar girls

After Express report on June 6, NGO wrote to Bombay High Court which converted report and letter into PIL

Kamini (name changed) used to be a dancer-singer and waitress at a Thane bar. Driven out of her job, she moved to the Masjid Galli lane of the city’s Kisan Nagar neighbourhood. But early in June, she was issued an ultimatum: immediately leave your rented apartment, or else. Local residents, backed by the Shiv Sena, were forcing bar girls like her out of the area, saying they must “cleanse” the area of “prostitutes”. By June 5, about a 1,000 of the 2,500 bar girls and their families fled the estate, The Indian Express reported the next day.

Now, the Bombay High Court has suo-motu converted a letter on the incident sent by an NGO to Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar into a public interest litigation. Janhit Manch wrote to Justice Kumar, referring to the Express report on Thane evictions, that Shiv Sena has taken the law in its hand and is being aided by Kisan Nagar residents in threatening and assaulting the women.

“It is the job of the police to stop such nuisance. No party or people should usurp the role of police,” the letter says.

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The police have said over the past month that they will act only if someone lodges a complaint. But the letter counters: “How can the police expect poor bar girls to dare lodge complaints against the political and social goons… If such criminal activity is allowed to be conducted uninterrupted, anarchy will spread to other areas too.”

Last month, Sainiks and residents, led by local Sena corporator Ram Repale, set a June 11 deadline for all the bar girls to leave. “We have still not shown them our Sena style. People here have complained to the police but nothing happened so they came to us. We are supporting the locals in flushing out the bar girls,” Repale then said.

Kisan Nagar was popular among bar girls as the rents there are cheaper than in other Thane areas. Also, Mulund and its many dance bars are nearby.