In a shocking incident on Wednesday, a Marathi woman was denied entry to an office in a Gujarati society in Mulund. The society's secretary stated that Maharashtrians were not permitted to enter. The woman was also subjected to assault, and a video of the incident has emerged.
The woman, identified as Trupti Devrukhkar, shared a video of the incident on social media. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) understood the woman's issue and questioned the society's secretary in the MNS style. Following the MNS's intervention, the man had to apologize. The Maharashtra State Women’s Commission has also taken note of the incident.
President of Maharashtra State Women’s Commission, Rupali Chakankar, said, “Article 15 of the Constitution of India provides no citizen shall be discriminated against on the basis of religion, caste, sex, place of birth. This includes caste and language. Also, in the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, no permission has been given to the society not to give houses to certain castes, religions and languages in the housing society.”
She added that despite the rules, most co-operative housing societies are openly discriminating on the basis of certain caste, religion, language and diet.
“Advertisements of housing schemes and websites also have this prominently written for ‘Gated Community’ only. Co-operative Department and Housing Department need to take serious action in this regard, she added.
She also mentioned that the fact a Marathi-speaking woman is denied a flat in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, is “very serious”.
The Maharashtra State Women’s Commission has taken notice of this incident and have asked the Cooperative Commissioner, Maharashtra State, Pune and the Principal Secretary, Housing Department, Maharashtra State, Ministry, to inquire and report on the same. Instructions have been given to the police station concerned to investigate the incident and take action.
Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray termed the incident "annoying" on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). In his post, Aaditya Thackeray asked for action to be taken against the building and those responsible.