Congress office attack: 8 MNS men sent to police custody

MUMBAI: A day after MNS workers vandalized the Congress office near Azad Maidan, party leader Sandeep Deshpande and seven others, who were arrested after the incident, were produced before the Esplanade court, which remanded them to police custody till Monday.
Deshpande had owned up to the attack and the MNS termed it a “surgical strike” on the Congress. City Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam had condemned the attack, terming it a sign of frustration after hawkers beat up MNS workers recently.
There has been a series of skirmishes between the two parties over the hawker issue since the September 29 stampede at Elphinstone road railway station which claimed 23 lives. MNS’s efforts to evict hawkers—seen as enjoying Congress support—from the streets have met with physical resistance in places.
In another instance, the MNS allegedly put up a hoarding near the Nirupam’s residence making derogatory remarks against him, police said. A senior officer from Versova police station said the hoarding was put up 500 feet away from Nirupam's residence in Lokhandwala and it was removed in the early hours of Saturday after the police noticed it.
“The hoarding had the MNS party's name and symbol on it. We suspect the hoarding was put by MNS party workers. We are probing it,” the officer added.
Meanwhile, the Congress office at Bandra East was defaced with ink around 3 am Saturday. With no one owning up the act, Nirmal Nagar police have registered a case against an unknown person. Police said they will look for CCTV footage to establish sequence of events.
"Ink was smeared on the notice board and the door of the office at BMC Colony, Shivaji Nagar. After we learnt of the incident, a case was lodged under sections 447 and 427 of IPC for mischief and tresspass. No arrests have been made yet,” a senior police official said.