MUMBAI: A holiday court here on Friday remanded advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte, arrested in connection with the MSRTC protest at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence here, to police custody till April 11.
The lawyer, however, claimed that he has been "falsely implicated" in the case by Pawar and other politicians for "exposing their misdeeds and corruption".
The police had on Friday arrested Sadavarte, who claims to represent the striking employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).
A group of over 100 MSRTC workers staged a fierce protest outside the NCP chief's bungalow Silver Oak when the latter was at home, taking the police by surprise.
The lawyer was produced before the metropolitan magistrate court.
The police informed the court that Sadavarte was arrested after a probe revealed that he was allegedly involved in the conspiracy to commit the crime.
Seeking his 14-day custody, special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat argued that Sadavarte had "intentionally provoked" the other accused to attack Pawar's residence.
He had no reason to take the law in his hands.
Gharat submitted before the court a transcript of Sadavarte's speech, in which he allegedly repeatedly named Pawar and instigated them to take action against the senior politician.
The advocate's conduct throughout shows that if he is released on bail, he will again pose a serious threat to the law and order and public, he argued.
However, advocate Mahesh Vaswani, appearing for Sadavarte, opposed the remand plea, citing that there were "absolutely no grounds for custodial detention", and moved a bail plea on behalf of the accused.
Vaswani submitted that Sadavarte has been framed in the case at behest of politicians like Pawar, state Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, because of the actions of the advocate and his wife in exposing their misdeeds and corruption.
The applicant is innocent, has absolute respect for the rule of law, and has always condemned all forms of violence, Vaswani said.
He further said that the accused advocate feared that his life is in danger in custody of the state machinery, and expressed urgency in hearing of the bail plea.
Sadavarte had successfully fought for the rights of the MSRTC employees and succeeded in getting them multiple rights and reliefs from the Bombay High Court, the lawyer said.
After hearing arguments put forth by both sides, the court remanded Sadavarte to police custody till April 11, while the other arrested accused were sent to judicial custody.
The police have arrested 110 persons in connection with the attack and a case of rioting, unlawful assembly, assault and criminal conspiracy has been registered at Gamdevi police station.