Trio arrested for attack on activist

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
ROWDIES IN COP NET: (From left) MNS workers Mahendra Dalvi and Kiran Jadhav at the Andheri court on Monday. They were arrested for assaulting AGNI activist James John

Mumbai: Three MNS workers have been arrested by the Andheri police in connection with the attack on AGNI activist James John earlier this month. John suffered three broken ribs. The arrested trio have been identified as Kiran Jadhav (20), Yogesh (27) and Mahendra Dalvi (25). All three are residents of Andheri (E). According to the police, the incident had occurred on February 13 at JB Nagar. In the wake of the inflammatory remarks made by MNS chief Raj Thackeray, his party workers were forcibly trying to shut shops in the area. John, who was returning to his Andheri residence, witnessed this and decided to take photographs on his camera. As soon as the men saw John taking pictures, they turned their ire towards him. A group of five men cornered John and manhandled him. Some of them even tried to delete his photographs, but John resisted. Later, John approached the Andheri police station and registered a complaint. He even handed over the photographs clicked by him to the police. “The Andheri police formed a special team and combed the entire area, looking for the suspects. Three of the accused persons were traced on Monday,’’ said senior inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi. “The arrested trio will be grilled for information on their associates. Some of those arrested even feature in photographs taken by John.’’ John had to be hospitalised following the attack. On Monday, he was summoned to the police station and identified the three arrested accused. toireporter@timesgroup.com