Ram Kadam, the controversial MLA from Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), was on Tuesday arrested by the Pantnagar police in Ghatkopar in suburban Mumbai, in connection with alleged threat made to an engineer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in January this year.
He was also arrested in connection with two past cases of alleged attack on a rationing officer and putting up illegal posters. He was, however, denied police custody by the court and sent to judicial custody and subsequently granted bail.
Mr. Kadam was produced in the Vikhroli Magistrate Court where police urged the judge to grant custody of him.
According to Pantnagar police, they wanted to take voice samples of Mr. Kadam to ascertain whether the person on the other end of the phone, who threatened BMC engineer Mahesh Fad, was the MLA himself. “We have traced the phone from which he received the threat call,” said a police official.
Mr. Kadam’s lawyer Samadhan Sulani argued that not a single crime had been proved against him. “They already have call data records. They do not need voice samples,” said Mr. Sulani. The court then sent Mr. Kadam to judicial custody till June 24 following which he applied for bail.
On January 17, Mr. Fad was assaulted by 15 persons in his office after he had overseen the demolition of a two-storey illegal structure at Bhatwadi in Ghatkopar east. During the demolition, he received a call on his mobile phone, allegedly from Mr. Kadam, who threatened him not to go ahead with the demolition.
