MUMBAI: A police team from Jamshedpur city of Bihar state landed in Mumbai in the early hours of yesterday with a nonbailable arrest warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone V) Milind Bharambe confirmed that he has received the arrest warrant against Raj from the Bihar police and said that the same will be served on Raj after he returns to Mumbai this week from his tour to Western Maharashtra. Raj is presently in Mahad town of Raigadh district.
The Judicial Magistrate First Class of Jamshedpur, A.K. Tiwary, had issued the nonbailable warrant against Raj on a petition filed by an advocate, Hameed Raza Khan, in which he has alleged that the MNS president has made derogatory remarks against the people of Bihar and has thus hurt the religious sentiments of a section of the community.
The magistrate directed the police to arrest Raj and produce him before the court by Nov. 17. A senior police official told Arab News that the Mumbai police have no alternative but to arrest Raj, unless he obtains an anticipatory bail from the Mumbai high court.
Meanwhile, Raj justified the attacks by his party workers on the North Indian candidates from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, when they had come to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to appear for the Railway recruitment board exams.
Speaking at a rally in Ahmednagar, Raj said that the government in power does not understand the language of “fasting” and “siege” and therefore the MNS had to resort to the attacks style to make them understand the demands of the Marathi people, he said.
In another development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh yesterday warned Raj to behave after his party workers went on rampage on Sunday attacking North Indians who had come to Mumbai for Railway recruitment exams.
In a tone marked with aggression, Deshmukh said that his government had ordered the police to act tough with the MNS workers who indulged in violence and attacks against the North Indians and were disrupting law and order in the state.
“Violence of such kind would not be tolerated from any quarters,” Deshmukh said while speaking to journalists here yesterday afternoon. Deshmukh further said that the state government would have given security to the Railway Recruitment Board at all its examination centers had it informed them.
