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.

"If I am arrested, the entire Maharashtra will be set on fire," he had said addressing a meeting in Chiplun on Monday evening.

Sporadic incidents of violence in Nashik, 130 held

Nashik, October 21:

Barring some sporadic incidents of stone-pelting at different localities in Nashik since morning after the news of MNS chief Raj Thackeray's arrest reached in Nashik, the city was well under control and peaceful, police said.

City Police Commissioner Himanshu Roy said, "We have so far arrested more than 100 activists of MNS, including MNS state unit general secretaries-Vasant Gite and Atul Chandak and other local leaders.”

Roy said that situation was well under control and they were prepared to face any eventuality as police security had been beefed up in the city.

As many as 15 Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses, running in city were stoned by MNS activists at different places, while some shops including Yes Bank on Sharanpur road were also stoned.

MNS members including its women activists staged a roadblockade at central bus stand and also made an attempt to burn effigies of state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, police added.

Meanwhile Gite, Chandak and other local leaders, who were held under preventive arrest on Monday evening, were produced in a local court.

30 MNS activists arrested in Kolhapur

Kolhapur, October 21:

Thirty Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists were arrested for vandalising the shops, owned by North Indian, in Kolhapur after the arrest of MNS chief Raj Thackeray, police said.

The MNS activists were arrested for pelting stones and attacking shops owned by North Indians, they said adding the activists had also attacked two Kolhapur Municipal Transport buses.

MNS activists had called a shutdown in Hupari, 20 km from Kolhapur, but situation was under control, police added.