What made matters worse was that the municipal commissioner was in the area to ensure that there were no encroachments and smooth flow of traffic on the arterial road was fecilitated.

But if Nalinakshan and his deputy Vijay Kumar Mathankar whose car was also hooked to the towaway vehicle emerged from the fiasco with pie on their faces for a situation not entirely of their making, the day threw up an unlikely hero: Arun Satpute, Senior Inspector, Traffic Police.

Nalinakshan and his posse arrived at the Siddhivinayak temple at 10 am for an inspection of the area. Just before starting his rounds he decided to visit the temple. Instead of parking his car in the bylanes reserved for VIP parking Nalinakshan's driver parked the vehicle in front of the third entry gate of the temple,Mathankar, other BMC officials and a few corporators followed suit. But while the battery of officers were seeking Lord Ganesh'a blessings inside, peak hour traffic outside was clogging up leading to a jam till Mahim.

Concerned by the delay in the flow of traffic Satpute landed on the spot and requested the drivers to shift the vehicles to the bylanes. But none of them was willing to shift the cars inside. After a brief altercation, Satpute deputed constables and asked them to ensure that the vehicles were moved. He left with an ultimatum to the drivers to shift the cars or face consequences.

Meanwhile, Nalinakshan, former Mayor Vishakha Raut, who is also the Chairperson of the Sidhivinayak Temple Trust, came out and went behind the temple to assess the situation arising out of the massive encroachments in the vicinity of the temple. While the elected representatives were lauding Nalinakshan for his drive against illegal constructions and encroachemts, little did he realise that he himself would be caughtfor wrong parking.

Satpute returned 20 minutes later, this time with two towing vans -- one for Nalinakshan's car and the other for Mathankar's vehicle. He then asked his subordinates to remove the cars from the no-poarking zone.

The cars were picked up and as they were swinging mid-air from the claws of the towing trucks, both Nalinakshan and Mathankar rushed to the spot.

This was followed by a heated argument between the Satpute, police constables and Vishakha Raut and a section of the trustees of the temple.

Even as Satpute was virtually gheraoed, Mathankar lodged a complaint against the police inspector to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S P S Yadav. Mathankar informed Yadav that it was wrong to tow the official car of the commissioner and that Satpute had behaved badly. Mathankar then handed over the cellphone to Satpute, who sought instructions from Yadav. The latter told him that if the commissioners were anyway ready to leave, their cars may be released. But Yadav later told thispaper that the action ``initiated by Satpute was correct'' but if he had misbehaved with the commissioner it was improper.

Later, when the mess cleared, Satpute told Express Newsline: ``No one is above law. I was doing my duty. There is a special parking for VIPs, they should have parked their vehicles there. As there was no response, I directed my subordinates to tow away the vehicles.'' The thousands of vehicle-owners stuck bumper-to-bumper from Siddhivinayak to Matunga for the better part of an hour, couldn't have agreed more with Satpute.