Sena MLA Babar held for damaging public property

Suspended Shiv Sena MLA Mahadev Babar and Shiv Sena corporators Nana alias Pramod Bhangire and Vijay Deshmukh were arrested yesterday under Section 3 of the Damage to Public Property Act of 1984.

They were produced in the Cantonment court yesterday afternoon and released on personal surety of Rs 15,000 each.

The arrests were made following a complaint lodged by Junior Engineer Rakesh Rajaram Shinde with the Hadapasar police on March 28, after Babar and his supporters demolished the divider on Pune-Solapur road with the help of a JCB machine.

The MLA defended his actions saying he was forced to do so as the PMC administration was turning a deaf ear to repeated requests and agitations over several accidents occurring on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes.

156 accidents
After his release, Babar said, "Since its inception in 2007, a total of 156 accidents have taken place on BRT route and 200 persons have lost their lives and around 400 have been rendered handicapped.

Despite repeated follow-ups, the civic administration has failed to do away with the lacunae in the system. They have registered a case against us for damaging public property, but what about those who have lost family members due to faulty BRT routes? Why has no action been taken against those who are purposely ignoring lacunas on BRT routes?"

Babar said that he appeared before Hadapsar police along with two supporters after hearing that his name was mentioned in the FIR.

Senior PI of Hadapasar police station Pandharinath Mandhare said, "We had seized a JCB machine and dumper used for demolition of median and arrested the drivers on March 31. Both were produced in court and released on bail."u00a0