A former Congress MLA and five party workers were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting the General Manager of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Praveen Malhotra (40), in his Kandivali office. They were later granted bail.

According to Kandivali police, the incident took place around 2:45 pm on Tuesday when ex-MLA Srikant Sarmalkar along with five Congress workers and other supporters barged in the MTNL office at Kandivali (W) and allegedly assaulted Malhotra.

“Sarmalkar is the head of the MTNL Kamgar Front, an unregistered union of MTNL workers. He wanted to discuss the workers’ grievances with Malhotra and was trying to take an appointment since the past few days. However, Malhotra refused to meet them, which apparently angered them,” DCP (Zone XI) Sanjay Bannerjee said.

Following the assault, the MTNL GM registered a police complaint, after which Sarmalkar and Congress workers Rajendra Sawant, Gokul Rajnath, Mahadev Rane, Ravindra Gawde and Sanjay Sawant were arrested. Malhotra said, “I suffered injuries on my face. Around 30-40 persons barged into my office and attacked me.”

“The arrested accused were produced before a magistrate where they were granted bail,” said an official from the Kandivali police station.