NASHIK, Sept 9: Rajendra Mihilal Agarwal alias Raju Gupta from Shahada (Dhule), who created a sensation in July 1997 by filing an affidavit in Mumbai, accusing leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Chhagan Bhujbal, of masterminding the desecration of Dr B R Ambedkar's statue in Ramabai Nagar, Ghatkopar, has been arrested by the police in Taloda (Nandurbar) for cheating the government.

Agarwal was taken into custody by the Taloda police yesterday and charged under Section 407 of the Indian Penal Code for criminal breach of trust punishable with imprisonment up to seven years.

His arrest follows a complaint lodged by civil supplies officer of Taloda, Bharat Shamji Valvi, who found that Agarwal had supplied 40 quintals of rice less than the documented quantity. Agarwal had been awarded a contract to supply rice for distribution in anganwadis.

The fraud was detected during a surprise check by Valvi and the tehsildar of Taloda, Sadanand Padvi, at the government godown at Borad. The misappropriated quantity of rice is estimated to be worth Rs 29,850.

An official of the Taloda police said the fraud was detected during surprise checks at the government's godowns at Borad and Akkalkuwa. Agarwal's family though claims he has been framed.

Agarwal shot into the limelight after the desecration of Dr Ambedkar's statue at Ramabai Nagar and the subsequent police firing on July 11, 1997. About a dozen Dalits died in the firing. After the incident, Agarwal filed an affidavit in Mumbai claiming to be a close associate of Bhujbal and accusing the latter of masterminding the statue's desecration.

He claimed Bhujbal had asked him to defile the statue a day before the Ramabai incident, adding that he had refused. He said he had returned to Shahada, where he read in newspapers a day later that somebody else had desecrated the statue.

The Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna

had carried reports branding Bhujbal as an enemy of the Dalits, prompting Bhujbal to file a defamation case against Bal Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and Subhash Desai in the Nashik court on September 4, 1997. The trio had appeared in the court on December 4. The case is slated for hearing on September 16.

Teenagers kidnap schoolboy

An attempt by four teenagers to kidnap a Std IX student of Rachana Vidyalaya, Vikrant, son of the regional manager of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, Manohar Baburao Gajare, was foiled by the police today.

Vikrant was forced into an autorickshaw in front of his school around noon when he was parking his bicycle. Some students reported the matter to the school authorities, who alerted his parents and the police. The kidnappers later telephoned his father and demanded a ransom of Rs 1 lakh at a spot on Trimbak Road.

Meanwhile, police clamped a `nakabandi' along arterial roads and two constables of the Satpur police station spotted a speeding autorickshaw and intercepted it.

Vikrant was rescued and four teenagers were arrested. They have been identified as Vikas Eknath Ghodeswr (17), who was driving the rickshaw, Yeshwant Bhagirath Shinde (17), Avinash Chandrakant Ige (14) and Prashant Bapu Tiwade (17).

Rail dacoity

Fourteen passengers of the Surat-Bhusawal passenger train were robbed by a gang of 15 persons between Nandurbar and Jalgaon railway stations in the early hours of Tuesday.

According to complaints lodged by the victims, the gangsters entered the compartment at Nandurbar and as the train picked up speed, began extorting money, the minimum being Rs 200 per head. They disembarked as the train slowed down at a signal near Jalgaon.