The 27-year-old flamboyant millionaire was arrested by the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg police station under Section 506 (part II) of the Indian Penal Code for threatening Vishwanath Khetam, working with Flash Services Security and Investigation on July 27.

According to highly placed police officials, two plainclothes constables of the detection branch of RAK Marg, Suhas Mahadik and Yuvraj Zende, were allegedly assaulted by the accused, his mother, servants and other family members this morning. The constables had gone to his residence to arrest him after gathering evidence of his alleged threatening phone calls.

Dressed in a suit, the unshaven biz baron was brought to the police station at Wadala where he spent a few hours before being produced before a metropolitan magistrate at Bhoiwada Court. He wasreleased on bail after paying Rs 5,000. Though the police did not press assault charges today, senior police officials said Mulchandani would later be charged with assaulting policemen.

While Mulchandani refused to comment, his lawyer Satish Maneshinde denied that his client had assaulted policemen.

``This (Section 506) is a minor offence, it is a greater crime to manhandle cops,'' he said. However, in the same breath, he added, ``they were dressed in plainclothes and came in an unmarked vehicle and not a police jeep.''

Maneshinde alleged that his client's `petty crime' (threatening the detective) was being pursued by the police at the instance of his business rivals. He said the police did not act on the complaint filed by Mulchandani at the Malabar Hill police station on July 23 stating that he was being followed.

However, it was not immediately clear who hired the private detective to tail Mulchandani and for what reasons. But, as a fallout of Khetam's complaint that he was being threatened, theRAK Marg police, it is learned, tapped some phones and traced a few calls to Mulchandani's mobile following which they proceeded to arrest him.

Kabir Mulchandani, CEO of the privately-held Baron Electronics, had rattled the electronics market by offering products at highly discounted rates. Though the Mulchandanis started their marketing affair with Akai of Japan, the product quality took a beating and the Japanese company decided to tie up with Videocon and jettisoned Baron Electronics. Since then, Baron has tied up with Aiwa and Hitachi of Japan.

Mulchandani has been one of the few Indians who have been profiled in the London-based The Economist for making deep inroads into the Indian electronics market dominated by some well-known players like BPL and Videocon. Recently there were rumours that a break-up between Aiwa and Baron was in the offing. Though Baron makes a big splash about prices, the Mulchandanis are highly secretive about the company's financial and other details.