Silver Oak riot: Court allows Satara police custody of arrested lawyer

The Satara police will now take custody of the arrested lawyer in the Silver Oak riot case, in an alleged offence registered against him in October 2020, under section 153 A

Mumbai The Girgaum metropolitan magistrate court on Wednesday allowed Satara city police to take advocate Gunratan Sadavarte in custody, arrested in connection with the riots outside Silver Oak – the Malabar Hill residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in connection with a case registered at Satara in October 2020, even as the Gamdevi police named his wife Jaishri Patil an accused in the riots case.

The police arrested Sadavarte for allegedly instigating the workers to break into Pawar’s house (HT PHOTO)

The Satara police will now take custody of Sadavarte in an alleged offence registered against him in October 2020, under section 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 500 (punishment for defamation), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (2) (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 295 A of IPC for deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs.

The case is registered for his ‘objectionable’ statement in October 7, 2020, while speaking to some TV channels about members of parliament Udyanraje Bhosale and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj during the protest related to Maratha reservation.

Gamdevi police had on April 8 arrested 109 protesting workers of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSTRC) for allegedly pelting stones, shoes and chappals at Pawar’s residence, claiming that the NCP chief did nothing to fulfil their demand of being absorbed as employees of the state government. The police arrested Sadavarte for allegedly instigating the workers to break into Pawar’s house.

As his earlier custody remand ended, on Wednesday, the lawyer was produced before the metropolitan magistrate court when special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat informed the court that the Gamdevi police has also named Sadavater’s wife Jaishri Patil as an accused.

He said the police have added penal sections for criminal breach of trust against the lawyer and his wife for misappropriation of crores of rupees purportedly collected from MSRTC workers. “There are around 8 lakhs MSRTC employees. They have collected more than ₹2 crore, none of which is spent on protests at Azad Maidan. The expenses were taken care of by a non-governmental organisation,” Gharat said.

“We need to find where that money has gone,” he said, insisting on a further extension of custody, claiming that his confrontation with the other accused was necessary.

He added that a meeting took place on the terrace of Sadavarte’s residence on April 7 and it was attended by the lawyer, a person from Nagpur, and MSRTC worker’s representatives – Abhishek Patil and Chandrakant Suryavanshi. The prosecutor said Jaishri Patil had instigated Patil and Suryavanshi during this meeting.

Gharat said the ”Nagpur resident” had even visited Azad Maidan and guided the protesting MSTRC staffers. Acting on his instructions, on Friday, the protestors got down at Mahalaxmi station and gathered at a Garden from where they were taken to Pawar’s Silver Oak. The “Nagpur resident” was in touch with Abhishek Patil, Gharat told the court.