Jailed netas who pledged ‘no bail’, now walk out

Taking a U-turn from their earlier stand of remaining in jail till all the city potholes are filled up, two arrested MNS municipal corporators, who allegedly humiliated a civic body chief engineer in public, pleaded for bail at a city court on Monday. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Surendra Biyani accepted the bail application and released the corporators after they furnished personal bonds.

Corporators Santosh Dhuri and Sandip Deshpande allegedly publicly humiliated chief engineer of the road department Sanjay Darade on October 5 for not repairing the potholes. They had surrendered at the Shivaji Park police station on October 8 evening after a complaint was lodged against them.

As a mark of protest, the arrested corporators had earlier said that they would not apply for bail till all the potholes in the city are filled. They were remanded in judicial custody till Monday. Meanwhile, on Monday, the BMC announced that it would repair all the existing potholes in the city by October 25.

On October 5, MNS party workers along with corporators Deshpande and Dhuri took Mr Darade to inspect roads near Sena Bhavan in Dadar. They allegedly forced Mr Darade to hold a placard reading, ‘I am responsible for all the potholes in Mumbai’.

The next day, more than 4,200 civic engineers struck work, demanding stern action against Deshpande and Dhuri. The strike was called off after an FIR was registered against both the corporators.