HC stays Raj's arrest warrant till Feb 17

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday, stayed the arrest warrant of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray till February 17, in connection with stone pelting by the party activists on a bus near Aurangabad in 2008.

The Aurangabad bench headed by Justice A V Potdar, stayed the Badnapur local court's arrest warrant order issued against MNS chief for damaging public property by the MNS activists on October 21, 2008. The bus driver Ambadas Telangare had filed a complaint that around 10 to 15 unidentified youths hurled stones at the bus.

The youths were shouting slogans 'MNS Zindabad',

the complainant said. On which a complaint was lodged against Raj Thackeray. On December 5, 2009, Judicial Magistrate Satyavan Doke issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Raj and also rejected the plea to stay it.

Advocate Sagar Ladda had argued that Raj was falsely implicated as he was arrested by the Kherwadi police in Mumbai from a guest house in Ratnagiri, on the same day when the incident took place. He was not present on the spot. He appealed to the court to set aside the decision of releasing the Non-Bailable Warrant against Raj and quash the proceedings before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Badlapur.