Mumbai: A sessions court on Monday framed charges against city mayor and BJP corporator Ritu Tawade and two co-accused in the 2016 Shastri Nagar municipal school assault case. Tawade appeared before the court in person as the judge during the previous hearing in Oct had directed her to remain present and warned that in case of default, “the court may issue warrant and cancel bail bonds.”The FIR registered at Vakola Police Station in August 2016, involves charges under IPC Sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty), read with Section 149, which imposes joint criminal liability on all members of an unlawful assembly of five or more persons acting with a shared objective. Based on the penal provisions in effect at the time of the 2016 incident, the maximum sentence faced by any accused is up to three years of imprisonment along with a fine. Tawade and others pleaded not guilty.Tawde, a BJP corporator, has been serving as mayor since Feb, 2026.The prosecution’s case relates to an incident on July 29, 2016, at an Urdu medium municipal school in Shastri Nagar, Vakola, Santacruz (E). The dispute reportedly erupted following the sudden transfer of a teacher, Shahin Khan, to a different facility in BKC. It was alleged that Shahin was unhappy with the transfer.The seven accused of the crime, including Tawde, allegedly started a quarrel with the headmistress and other teachers on the grounds that Shahin was transferred despite suffering from cancer. According to the FIR filed by headmistress Sharifa Momin, the confrontation escalated when the accused used criminal force and slapped two male teachers, Mohd Yakub Rahid and Nadim Ahmed Shaikh.On March 12, the court rejected her plea to be discharged from the case. The judge had noted that the statements provided by the victims and other witnesses directly implicated the applicant. “The two teachers or victims have categorically named the above applicant to be the person who beat them by hands inside the school. Even other witnesses took the name of the applicant being assaulter on the date of incident. This is more than sufficient to frame charge against the applicant (Tawde),” the judge had said.
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