Mumbai: MNS candidate held for assaulting cops

The Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena candidate from Ghatkopar (west) Ram Kadam for allegedly assaulting policemen and election officials during polling.

The police also cane-charged MNS activists who protested against Kadam's arrest.

Kadam, along with party activists, had on Tuesday accused the police and election officials of removing an Electronic Voting Machine at a polling booth and assaulted them, the police said.

"However, the officials had removed the EVM as it had developed some technical snag. They were to replace it with a standby EVM. There was a misunderstanding and the MNS activists thought it was being done to enable bogus voting," Deputy Police Commissioner Rajkumar Vatkar said.

Hundreds of activists gathered when police reached Kadam's residence to arrest him on Wednesday, Vatkar said, adding that while Kadam was being taken to the Ghatkopar police station, the crowd broke the windowpanes of police vans.

"To disperse the crowd and control the situation, police cane-charged them," he said, adding that the situation was now under control.