Mumbai: MNS youth wing leader, Akhil Chitre, and five other party workers were arrested by Vakola police Monday morning for allegedly rioting and threatening hawkers stationed at Santacruz (east) on Sunday. The hawkers registered a case against the accused at 10.30pm on Sunday and the latter were arrested Monday morning. The six including Chitre, were produced in the Bandra metropolitan court and remanded to judicial custody.

Sunday evening, a team of MNS workers led by Chitre, who is also the party’s youth wing leader, allegedly vandalised hawkers’ stalls and threw their wares on the road.

The party workers allegedly also threatened the hawkers with their lives if they set up shop again. The hawkers’ stalls had been put up around 100 to 500 meter from Santacruz station and they were wrongly targeted, according to a police officer.

The rioting and vandalism occurred Sunday evening after which, the affected hawkers approached Vakola police station at night to report the matter. The police registered a case and the very next morning, first arrested Chitre, followed by the other five MNS workers.

Deepak Devraj, deputy commissioner of police (operations) confirmed the arrests and told The Asian Age, “The accused protested in the presence of police officers but as no case was registered till then, no strict action was taken. Only after a formal FIR was lodged were the arrests made.”

The six accused persons were booked under sections 141, 143, 147, 504, 506 and 427 of the Indian Penal Code for unlawful assembly, rioting, criminal intimidation and mischief causing damage; read along with sections of the Maharashtra Police Act.