Ashram attack main accused Damle arrested from hotel in MP

Suspended NCP councillor Ashish Damle of the Kulgaon-Badlapur Municipal Council, who went into hiding after the attack on an ashram on June 2, was arrested from a hotel in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh today, police said.
Thane DSP Rajesh Pradhan who addressed an impromptu press conference here in the evening said that a local Crime Branch police team nabbed the absconding councillor from a hotel in Tikamgadh district of Madhya Pradesh.
On June 2, Damle and around 30 men allegedly attacked Naresh Vitthal Ratnakar's ashram, ransacked it, beat up inmates and decamped with Rs 1 lakh, besides a rifle as well as live cartridges, he said.

The mob had attacked the ashram with stones, smashed cars, damaged closed circuit television cameras as well as attacked inmates, he said.
Damle had claimed that Naresh's niece Pallavi Santosh Ratnakar is his wife and dragged her away forcibly, the police official said.
Later, Pallavi who was rescued, was reunited with her parents, the police official said.
The local police then registered an offence against Damle and the attackers under Section 363, Section 395, Section 452, Section 323, Section 504, Section 506 and Section 427 of the Indian Penal Code, the police official said.
The police arrested as many as ten people who allegedly took part in the attack, but the main accused Ashish Damle had escaped and applied for anticipatory bail at the local court which rejected his application, the police official said.