109 MSRTC workers arrested for protesting outside Sharad Pawar’s residence

Immediately after they were remanded to judicial custody, the 109 arrested MSRTC employees applied for bail, but the magistrate court rejected their bail pleas

Mumbai: The Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday remanded 109 employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), arrested for rioting outside Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s residence on Friday, to judicial custody. The court also remanded the lawyer of the arrested MSRTC employees, advocate Gunratan Sadavarte, to two-day police custody.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers stage a silent protest in support of party chief Sharad Pawar, after MSRTC employees' protested outside his Silver Oak residence (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

Immediately after they were remanded to judicial custody, the 109 arrested MSRTC employees applied for bail, but the magistrate court rejected their bail pleas. They will now move the sessions court for bail.

The Gamdevi police on Friday arrested 110 protesters, including 23 women and advocate Sadavarte, for rioting outside Pawar’s residence. 104 persons were arrested from the Malabar Hill area immediately after the incident, whereas six others were arrested Friday night.

The protestors had on Friday afternoon gathered outside Silver Oak and raised slogans against Pawar, claiming that the NCP chief did nothing to fulfil their demands and even pelted stones, shoes and chappals at the house before police personnel intervened.

On Saturday, all the arrested persons were produced before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court where special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat sought police custody remand for all of them.

Insisting on Sadavarte’s custody remand, Gharat said that he is the main instigator and wants to find out the brain behind the conspiracy that led to the incident. He added that the police also want to find out if the lawyer was involved in the conspiracy and if any anti-social elements were involved in the entire episode.

Police alleged that Sadavarte instigated the striking MSRTC staffers to break into Pawar’s house by making a provocative statement. The FIR mentions that on Thursday while speaking to the media, Sadavarte had claimed that the MSTRC workers “will break into the residence of Sharad Pawar and will ask him questions.” Police suspect that this statement had provoked the striking staffers.

Sadavarte’s lawyer, advocate Mahesh Vaswani, however, denied the allegations and maintained that Sadavarte was falsely implicated since he has been fighting cases against the state government. “He has raised his voice against the government and hence action is being taken against him,” said advocate Vaswani.

“The protestors have been fighting for their rights for five months but no leader came to help them,” he added and also pointed out that Sadavarte was not present outside Silver Oak when the incident took place.

Police sources said that investigators suspect that the attack on Pawar’s bungalow could be pre-planned as few individuals were spotted suspiciously moving in the area to recce Pawar’s residence two days before the attack. Their movement was captured in the CCTV camera. These individuals are yet to be identified.

As per the remand application of the Gamdevi police station, the police also had intelligence about possible protests by striking ST employees outside various MPs, MLAs and ministers after being instigated by some people. Accordingly, an adequate bandobast was placed outside the Pawar’s residence Silver Oak and also outside Royal Stone in Malabar Hill which is the residence of Maharashtra Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat.

According to the police, on the evening of April 7, Sadavarte in his speech had made provocative statements against Sanjay Raut, Nawab Malik, Anil Parab, and Sharad Pawar. Sadavarte while instigating ST employees also said that protests would be done in Baramati village of Pawar and will not allow him to get out of his home.

Police said that the arrested accused Hanumant Waghmare, Krishnat Kore, Mohammed Tajuddin Shaikh and Govind Masarankar are suspected to be involved in the criminal conspiracy and instigating the MSRTC employees. According to the police, some agitators were under the influence of alcohol.

The employees of the MSRTC, which has over 90,000 persons on its payroll, have been on strike for demands including the merger of the cash-strapped transport corporation with the state government. Friday’s sudden protest came a day after the Bombay High Court had asked the workers to resume duty by April 22.