Raj Thackeray-led MNS activists attack non-Maharashtrian workers, 7 booked

Suspected members of the Raj Thackeray-led MNS attacked non-Maharashtrian factory workers, a police official said today.

The regional party has been demanding preference for local youth in jobs at units in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area at Kupwad.

Police have arrested seven persons in connection with the attack which took place here in Western Maharashtra last evening.

A group of activists, suspected to be affiliated to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), assaulted the workers, who hailed from northern states, while they were returning from a factory in Kupwad industrial area, the official said.

The industrial town houses several foundries, spinning mills, factories and oil manufacturing units.

Based on a complaint registered at the MIDC police station by one of the victims, the police arrested seven persons, said inspector A M Kadam.

They were booked under IPC sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), he said.