Raj Thackeray was arrested in the wee hours of Tuesday in Ratnagiri and was sent to jail by a Bandra court which however granted him bail but the MNS chief was quickly booked in another case in Kalyan as the police action triggered violence by his supporters in the state.

Under intense pressure to rein in Raj for his anti-North Indian tirade, the Maharashtra Government finally effected the arrest in four different cases arising out of the involvement of MNS activists in the attack on candidates from North India appearing for a railway recruitment exam on Sunday.

MNS activisits went on a rampage in parts of Mumbai, Nashik, Sholapur and Kolhapur attacking shops and pelting stones at buses and taxis. Police had made about 2,000 preventive arrests to prevent any violence after the arrest.

The suburban Metropolitan court granted him bail in the Chetna College attack incident in Kherwadi, Bandra, but handed him over to Dombivali police where he will be produced before a local court in Kalyan.

The bail application was moved after the Bandra court remanded him to judicial custody till November 4.

The arrest was made following a complaint registered in Kherwadi police against Raj and MNS activists for the Sunday incident. Similar attacks took place in Thane district on the same day.

On his arrest earlier in the morning, Thackeray was charged under Sections 153, 353, 336, 425, 427 of IPC relating to rioting, assault, damage to property and mischief.

The arrest came within hours of a defiant Raj justifying the attack on North Indian youth and warning the state government that it will have to regret the consequences if he was arrested.

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