The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said that the “casual approach” of the police in investigating the case against members of the Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde faction who assaulted medical staff and vandalised a private hospital in Maharashtra’s Palghar was unacceptable, PTI reported.A bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Kamal Khata said that the Palghar Police had not carried out any investigation in the case.The matter pertains to the alleged assault and vandalism at Relief Hospital on the intervening night of September 5 and September 6. Several workers of the Shinde Sena allegedly entered the hospital, where some persons who had been injured while participating in Dahi Handi celebrations were undergoing treatment.During Dahi Handi celebrations, revellers form human pyramids to break an earthen pot filled with curd. Some revellers sustain injuries fr falling from the pyramids.The workers claimed that the hospital was charging excessive fees. They allegedly threatened doctors, assaulted staff members and forcibly took away the injured persons admitted to the intensive care unit.Two days after the violence, Shinde suspended the party’s Palghar chief Rahul Gharat and announced that he would be expelled from the outfit, the Hindustan Times reported. The deputy chief minister said his party “does not and will never condone violence against doctors or any healthcare professional”.On Wednesday, the court was hearing a suo motu petition concerning an assault at a civic hospital in Thane in July, in which Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre is an accused, PTI reported. During the hearing, a lawyer mentioned the Palghar incident before the court.The bench said that the police had not learnt anything from the Thane hospital assault case.“This reflects on your inefficiencies,” PTI quoted the court as saying. “This is a sensitive case where a hospital has been vandalised, staffers were assaulted and doctors were threatened.”Palghar Superintendent of Police Yatish Deshmukh told the High Court that one of the 10 persons named in the first information report, Rahul Gharat, had been arrested and was in police custody.The other nine accused remain absconding, he said.The court verbally remarked that it was because of the police’s “laxity” that the accused were absconding, PTI reported.The court also said that it would hand over the investigation to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch if the Palghar police failed to properly investigate the case.Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.