Mumbai:
Two Maharashtra legislators, who were arrested for allegedly thrashing a policeman inside the premises of the state Assembly last week, have been granted bail. The MLAs - Kshitij Thakur from the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and Ram Kadam from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena - were released on a surety of Rs 15,000 each and will need to present themselves before the Mumbai crime branch once a week.
Both the legislators were booked under various sections of IPC including two non-bailable charges of deterring a public servant from performing his duty and criminal intimidation.
Five legislators including the two were suspended from the House till December 31 on Wednesday.
Besides Mr Thakur and Mr Kadam, the other MLAs - Rajan Salvi from the Shiv Sena, Jaikumar Rawal from the BJP and an independent Pradeep Jaiswal - were among a group of 10-12 legislators who had allegedly slapped and punched Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi.
A day before he was thrashed, the policeman had stopped Mr Thakur for speeding on the Bandra-Worli sealink in Mumbai.
The legislators reportedly got enraged after Mr Thakur accused the policeman of breach of privilege and alleged that he had also abused him when he stopped him on the Bandra-Worli sealink.
While members cutting across party lines demanded that the cop be suspended, some of them rushed to the visitor's gallery where the policeman was sitting and thrashed him. The police officer was rushed to a hospital on a stretcher.