Mumbai: 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 April 14.
Adv. Sadavarte has been charged for making inflammatory speeches two years ago against Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje – both direct descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
After a complaint lodged by Rajendra Nikam, the Satara Police are probing the case, and Sadavarte had ignored police summons for questioning in October 2020.
Soon after the shocking April 8 attack on the Silver Oaks bungalow of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar, Sadavarte was nabbed, while his wife, Adv. Jayshri Patil-Sadavarte is also a wanted absconder.
He was granted two police remands of two days each and on Wednesday (April 13) sent to judicial custody for 14 days after which the Girgaum Magistrate Court allowed him to be handed over to Satara Police till April 17.
A total of 115 have been arrested including a journalist from Pune Chandrakant Suryawanshi – who has been sent to police custody for 3 days till April 16.
On Wednesday, the Special Public Prosecutor Pradip D. Gharat informed the court of a new financial angle that emerged in the investigations, with Sadavarte collecting over Rs 2-crore from the MSRTC staffers 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.
