Anti-hawker drive after Elphinstone stampede: Bail bond amount for MNS workers reduced from Rs1 crore to Rs1 lakh
The show-cause notice issued to one of the workers sought a bond of Rs1 crore, while the others were to furnish Rs25-lakh bond each.
A special executive magistrate of Naupada division in Thane has reduced the amount for bail bond sought from seven Maharashtra Navnirman Sena workers, who allegedly thrashed hawkers outside Thane railway station and vandalised their stalls, to Rs1 lakh each.
The show-cause notice issued to one of the workers sought a bond of Rs1 crore, while the others were to furnish Rs25-lakh bond each.
Additional public prosecutor Swapnil Pednekar said the amount has been reduced on the workers’ request.
The HC had on Thursday restrained the police from taking any action against them, on noticing that sections 110(d) and 110(e) of the Criminal Procedure Code, as invoked by the police, were not applicable to the case.
The counsel for the petitioners, advocate Rajendra Shirodkar, said that apart from unreasonably high bond amounts, the petitioners challenged the notices for chapter proceeding on grounds that sections invoked by police – 110(d) and 110(e) - were not applicable. Both the sections can be invoked only against “habitual offenders” and as only two offences and both in connection with the same incidents have been registered against the petitioners, the sections could not have been invoked against them, said Shirodkar.
After the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede that claimed 23 lives, MNS workers across the city and suburbs thrashed hawkers on railway station premises, ransacked their stalls and destroyed their goods. The seven petitioners allegedly acted as part of the MNS drive and assaulted hawkers outside Thane railway station on October 21.