SP leader Abu Asim Azmi arrested, gets bail

Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi was on Wednesday given bail by a Mumbai court, soon after his arrest on charges of stirring up trouble between ethnic groups.

The state president of the Samajwadi Party was granted bail on a sum of Rs10, 000 by the Bhoiwada metropolitan magistrate in south Mumbai.

Azmi was arrested along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. While Thackeray was taken into custody from his residence at Shivaji Park, Dadar at central Mumbai, Azmi was arrested from his home at Colaba, south Mumbai.

Both Thackeray, nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, and Azmi have been booked under non-bailable sections for promoting enmity amongst ethnic groups by using invectives and provocative language over the presence of north Indians in Mumbai.

As the arrests became public, trouble spread across the state with police in Nashik confirming that stones were pelted and shops belonging to migrants were forcibly closed down by MNS workers.