A magisterial court in Mumbai on Saturday sent to judicial custody 110 protesting employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), who were arrested on Friday for rioting outside the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
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The Gamdevi police produced him in the court near Azad Maidan in the afternoon amidst heavy arrangements. Gunratna Sadavarte, the legal counsel for the detained striking employees, has been sent to two-day police custody.
In its remand application, the police, through its public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, sought the custody of the accused. The prosecutor argued before the magistrate that several policemen were injured in the protests and tried to trace the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
Police said they wanted to find out whether Sadavarte was behind the conspiracy, adding that while talking to media persons on April 7, he had said that the protesters would enter Pawar’s residence and demand answers.
Gamdevi police had registered a case on Friday FIR Against 132 people, mostly MSRTC employees, who tried to barge into Silver Oak, the South Mumbai residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
The incident comes a day after the Bombay High Court directed the Transport Corporation to drop the charges against its protesting employees and reinstate the sacked employees on return to work by April 22.
Employees of the state transport body, which has over 90,000 people on its payroll, have been on strike since November 2021, demanding that the cash-strapped transport corporation be taken over by the state government.