Thackeray arrested, freed by court

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, JULY 25. The Mumbai police today arrested the Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray, after he dramatically put himself in the hands of the law today ``to end the tension of uncertainty''. He told the police he would meet them in the court even before the chargesheet was readied. The police then asked him to come to the Mayor's official bungalow to avoid the throng of the Sena cadre and formally arrested him.

But when Mr. Thackeray was produced before a magistrate, the case under Section 153(A) of the Indian Penal Code for inflammatory writings in 1993 was dismissed because of the six year delay.

Along with Mr. Thackeray, the publisher of Saamna, Mr. Subhash Desai and its executive editor, Mr. Sanjay Raut, were also arrested and taken to the court in unmarked cars with a large police escort. They too were discharged by the court. Since the case itself was thrown out, the question of bail did not arise and they were all freed, much to the delight of the party workers.

After the court' decision, a happy Mr. Thackeray drove back to the Mayor's residence, and spoke on the telephone to the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, and the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani. ``My party's three Ministers would return to duty in New Delhi,'' he told them and asked the Prime Minister, in a lighter vein, not to dock their pay and allowances for a few days' absence. (A UNI report from New Delhi quoted the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, as saying that the three Sena Ministers - Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Mr. Manohar Joshi and Mr. Vikhe Patil - would resume attending office tomorrow.)

It was a tense morning. It was ensured that trains were run and buses plied and Mr. Thackeray reiterated that he did not want any trouble. However, people remained indoors fearing trouble. So heavy was the telephonic traffic on the episode that regular MTNL and cellular phone calls could not be made, leading to fears that the police had switched off the systems to prevent rumours for three hours.

Govt. tries to put up a brave face

A red-faced State Government tried to put up a brave face saying it would go in appeal to the High Court ``because we have enough to substantiate our case that Mr. Thackeray has to be tried for inflammatory writings''.

An appeal in higher courts is the logical move before the Government which, sources said, would have to tread very carefully in dealing with the Srikrishna Commission cases that would emerge now after the recent opinion of the Supreme Court. The Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, and the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal, made it clear the High Court would be moved to ``present our case. We have enough proof to proceed against Mr. Thackeray.'' Mr. Bhujbal added, ``we showed that none was above law. We wanted the law to decide things.''

Tension evaporates

Following the discharge of Mr. Thackeray by the magistrate, the tension that hung over the city and the State since Mr. Bhujbal first signed the papers authorising the prosecution of the Sen chief for his inflammatory writings in Saamna evaporated. As soon as word filtered that Mr. Thackeray was in the court, shops shut down and schools emptied out amid the tightest-ever security blanket thrown over Mumbai, especially in Sena strongholds. After the case was dismissed, people began to breathe easy.

Events quickened after the senior Sena leader, Mr. Manohar Joshi, telephoned the city police chief and said Mr. Thackeray would go to the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate's court and the ``police could do their work there''. The police, insisted that he would have to be arrested and instead of doing amid the crowd of Sainiks outside his residence, he was asked to be brought to the Mayor's residence. The Sena chief was formally arrested and driven down to the magistrate's court. In an hour he was a free man.

In the morning, Mr. Thackeray appeared irked by reports that the Centre had sent para-military forces to Mumbai on the State Government's request. New Delhi, sources in the Shiv Sena said, had to convince him that if the forces were not sent and trouble broke out, the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan could become active. This ``clarification'' seemed to calm the Sena boss and prompted him to tell the media he was ready to be arrested.

Uproar in Assembly

PTI reports:

The State Legislative Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes when the Opposition members, mainly from the Shiv Sena and the BJP, damaged the Speaker's table, broke chairs, destroyed the public address system and threw papers in protest against the arrest of the Sena chief. Six Shiv Sena MLAs were suspended for a year and an equal number for six months.

Before commencement of the day's proceedings, the Opposition members began shouting anti-Government slogans and hurled abuses at Mr. Bhujbal, who was not present in the House at that time.

The BJP's Mr. Raj Purohit picked up the silver mace from the Speaker's table while Sena members - Mr. Sanjay Band, Mr. Gulabrao Patil and Mr. Bala Nandgaonkar - broke a few chairs and threw some papers in the air.

They uprooted the Speaker's table and removed the cushion from his chair. Some of the members were seen breaking chairs on the podium.

A vindictive act: Thackeray

Later, addressing a huge crowd of Shiv Sainiks outside his ``Matoshri'' residence, Mr. Thackeray described his prosecution by the Democratic Front Government in the State as being ``a vindictive act of one person (Mr. Bhujbal)'', and vowed to ``remove the DF Government from power''.

The Sena chief clad in a saffron lungi told his supporters, ``I have never said I do not believe in the law. But I am one who will never tolerate injustice.''

Explaining to his followers the developments of the day, Mr. Thackeray said he had himself telephoned the Police Commissioner in the morning and told him that the fear pyschosis in the metropolis should end.

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