Mumbai: Five Congress legislators were suspended by Maharashtra assembly speaker Haribhau Bagde for two years for allegedly heckling and physically stopping governor C Vidyasagar Rao as he entered the Vidhan Bhawan on Wednesday.
Revenue minister Eknath Khadse proposed their suspension saying that the governor had received "injuries" on his left hand during the incident.
Congress MLAs who have been suspended are Jaykumar Gore, Rahul Bondre, Abdul Sattar, Amar Kale and Virendra Jagtap.
A House panel is set to probe the incident and submit its report during the winter session of the legislature.
Meanwhile, all five suspended Congress members of Maharashtra assembly have denied causing injury to Maharashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao and alleged that the entire episode was a "conspiracy" by the BJP government.
Talking to reporters, Congress MLAs Rahul Bondre, Jaykumar Gore, Virendra Jagtap, Abdul Sattar and Amar Kale said they did not heckle the governor.
"The BJP legislator Girish Mahajan's account of the alleged incident was taken as an eye-witness account, while we were not given a chance to put forth our side of the story.
Mahajan's presence at the place of protest itself is suspicious, since he is the Governor's bodyguard. How was he present there?" they said.
The MLAs appealed to reporters asking them to examine the the facts, since they too were present at the venue.
"We are confident that we will be proved innocent after the probe. If the government keeps us out for two years, we will tour the entire state and go to the people to highlight wrongdoings of the BJP government," they said.
