4 Sainiks held for assault on Wadala man

A day after Wadala Truck Terminus (TT) Police lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against Shiv Sena workers for assaulting and tonsuring a man in Shanti Nagar on Sunday, four Sena activists were arrested on Thursday. The accused men, including Shiv Sena Shaka Pramukh Samadhan Jugdar, had assaulted and tonsured Hiramani alias Rahul Tiwari, 33, for posting a comment on social media, insulting party president and Chief

Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The arrested men were later released on bail.

On Thursday, police arrested Jugdar and his accomplices -- Prakash Hasbe, Shrikant Yadav and Satyawan Kolambkar, who were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, unlawful assembly, causing hurt and criminal intimidation. Both parties had filed a non-cognisable offences against each other on Sunday. According to police, Tiwari, 30, who works in a pharmaceutical company at Dadar, had posted a comment on Facebook on December 19 against Thackeray, in response to the latter likening the police attack on students of the Jamia Millia Islamia to the 1919 Jallianwala Baug massacre.

On Monday, Tiwari had said, "I have a Facebook account under the name of 'Rahul Tiwari' and I had criticised a post. Shortly after that Sena supporters in my area contacted me and threatened me with dire consequences unless I took down the post. Unwilling to be drawn into any controversy, I deleted the comment."

Despite deleting the comment, on Sunday, a group led by Sena functionaries Jugdar and Hasbe called him out of his house, assaulted and tonsured him.

Police soon reached the spot and took us to the police station, but did not register a complaint right away. Instead, they issued us a notice under section 149 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which is a legal tool given to police to prevent the commission of a cognisable offence, said Tiwari.