Police arrest MNS worker for violating SC order by tying 49 ft dahi handi

Earlier this morning, we reported how Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) lived up to its claim of celebrating Janmashtami in the ‘usual spirit’ by defying the Supreme Court order and tying a 49 feet dahi handi in Thane.

However by afternoon, police arrested Avinash Yadav, the man responsible for organizing the party’s dahi handi programmes. Yadav, who was seen sporting a t-shirt bearing the message ‘I will break the law’ in Marathi, was booked for willfully disobeying an order by a public servant (police).

Apart from arresting Yadav, Thane police also forced organizers to reduce the height of the dahi handi to under 20 feet, per the permissible limit set by the Supreme Court. One report also claimed that organizers allowed participants younger than 18 to participate.

According to one local, a group of govindas had even tried to break the dahi handi while at was set at 49 feet, but were unsuccessful.

In the morning, Yadav had confirmed that the dahi handi was tied on the orders from the party’s leader Raj Thackeray, who reportedly told workers to celebrate the festival the way it was meant to be celebrated. “The Supreme Court cannot dictate how we celebrate our festivals. If I break the law then I am willing to go to jail for this,” Jadhav had said.

Even though cops were stationed in the area, they did not intervene in a bid to preserve law and order. However, they recorded the preparations on camera and alerted the control room.

Recently, Supreme Court ruling capped the height of human pyramid to 20 feet and barred youths under the age of 18 from participating in dahi handi owing the 300 plus people who were injured during the festivities last year in Maharashtra.

Despite the ruling, over a dozen incidents of mandals flouting rules have been recorded so far. In Mumbai alone, over 49 have been reported injured till 4 pm today.