Neral police on Wednesday arrested a man videographed of assaulting another man in a car, in the broad daylight. The incident that happened on September 7, came into light after the video went viral on social media, on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, @shivsenaUBT _ handle posted the 24 second video on X app and claimed that the assaulter was the bodyguard of Karjat MLA Mahendra Thorve. The video garnered over 83k views by evening. Even as UBT claimed the assaulter to be associated with MLA Thorve in Karjat, Thorve denied the claims.
"The incident happened on September 7 but the FIR was registered only on Wednesday after we traced the complainant. After we got the video, we traced the complainant with the help of the registration number of the vehicle. We registered the case and traced the accused from Kalyan and arrested him," Raigad Superintendent of Police, Somnath Gharge, said. The accused identified as Shivaji Govind Sonawale (35) was nabbed from Kalyan. The complaint was registered by victim Amar Bandal.
"Prima facie, we haven't found any political links of the accused. The accused has a criminal record as well," said the police inspector Shivaji dhavale from Neral police station.
"Both the accused and the complainant were known to each other and the assault was in relation to damages caused to the accused's vehicle earlier," Gharge added.
Meanwhile, MLA Thorve denied the allegations made by UBT faction and informed media that the accused in the video was not his bodyguard. In a statement issued, Thorve accused UBT faction of intentionally trying to defame him.
