Four Shiv Sainiks Who Were Arrested For Assaulting Ex-Navy Officer Get Bail Within Hours

The four Shiv Sena leaders who were arrested for assaulting a retired Indian Navy officer for allegedly forwarding a cartoon on Chief Minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray, have now been released on bail in Mumbai on Saturday (12 September), officials said.

Former Navy man Madan Sharma on Friday had alleged that some Shiv Sena workers had attacked him on Friday following a WhatsApp forward in which he shared a cartoon showing Thackeray prostrating before pictures of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, on a WhatsApp group of his society members.

However, it has now been reported that Kadam and other Shiv Sainiks have been received on bail.

It was earlier reported that though nobody from the WhatsApp group reacted on the cartoon , someone forwarded the cartoon to Kadam, the Navy officer's medico daughter Sheela Sharma said.

The Shiv Sainiks, including Shakha Pramukh Kamlesh Kadam, found these objectionable and stormed into Sharma’s home in Kandivali East on Friday, said an official of Samata Nagar Police Station here. It was a group of around 8-10 persons, all allegedly Shiv Sainiks, who came and assaulted Sharma in his society compound.

With red and swollen eyes, though Sharma apparently escaped serious injuries, he managed to reach home soon afterwards and then went to the police station to lodge a complaint, even as several BJP leaders slammed the government for the incident.

(With inputs from IANS)