A lawyer for Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees Gunratan Sadavarte – one of the prime accused in the Pawar home attack case – was arrested and taken away by the Satara Police, here on Thursday.
Adv. Sadavarte is accused of making incendiary speeches against Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje, both direct descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, two years ago.
Advertisement
The Satara Police are investigating the issue after Rajendra Nikam filed a complaint, and Sadavarte had refused police summonses for questioning in October 2020.
Advertisement
Sadavarte was apprehended shortly after the shocking April 8 attack on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar’s Silver Oaks bungalow, and his wife, Adv. Jayshri Patil-Sadavarte, is also a wanted absconder.
He was given two two-day police remands and was committed to judicial prison for 14 days on Wednesday (April 13), following which the Girgaum Magistrate Court authorised him to be handed over to Satara Police till April 17.
A total of 115 people have been arrested, including Chandrakant Suryawanshi, a journalist from Pune who has been detained for three days until April 16.
The Special Public Prosecutor, Pradip D. Gharat, informed the court on Wednesday that a new financial angle had emerged in the investigations, with Sadavarte collecting almost Rs 2-crore from MSRTC employees to fight their case.
A witness has approached the police and testified that he himself had handed over an amount of Rs 80-lakhs to Sadavarte after which the additional Indian Penal Code Sec. 409 – that can attract a maximum life sentence in jail – was added, according to Gharat.
It maybe recalled that a mob of over 100 MSRTC employees, including many women at the lead, had attacked Pawar’s home with stones and shoes.
Later, the home department admitted to a lapse in heeding intel-inputs, while the MSRTC employees who are accused of taking part in the attack will be dismissed from service.
(with inputs from IANS)
Advertisement
