Protest outside Pawar's house: Two more arrested

Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested two more persons in connection with a protest outside NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence here last week, officials said.

Chandrakant Suryavanshi, a Pune-based journalist who works with a YouTube channel, was arrested from Pune, while Sandip Giridhar Godbole, a suspended MSRTC employee, was arrested from Nagpur.

With this, 116 people have so far been held after a group of over 100 striking employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation staged a protest outside `Silver Oak', Pawar's residence in south Mumbai, last Friday.

Following the protest, which caught the Mumbai police off guard, several people including lawyer Gunaratna Sadavarte, who claims to represent the agitating MSRTC workers who are on strike since November 2021, were arrested.

The offense of rioting has been registered in connection with the protest at Gamdevi police station in Mumbai.

Sandip Giridhar Godbole, a resident of Ganeshpeth area of Nagpur city, was arrested from Jalalkheda town in Nagpur district on Wednesday. He had been allegedly contacted by Sadavarte twice through WhatsApp call just before the protest outside Pawar's residence, a police official said.

Godbole was a mechanic with the MSRTC and recently suspended by the corporation.

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Tuesday said the intelligence department had sent a letter to police officials concerned on April 4 about a possible protest by MSRTC workers outside Pawar's residence, but still there was a ''lapse'' and enough security arrangements were not made.

A probe is already on into the lapse, while the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of zone II has been transferred and a senior inspector of the Gamdevi police station suspended, the minister had said.