Raj Thackeray

Mumbai, Feb. 11: Police have registered an FIR against Raj Thackeray and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi for allegedly inciting last week’s violence, paving the way for their arrest.

Officers said the case against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief was filed late last night at Vikroli police station. Raj had allegedly made offensive comments against north Indians at a public meeting in Kannamwar Nagar in the eastern suburbs.

Raj has been charged with providing provocation to cause a riot; promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language; and engaging in acts prejudicial to harmony and national integration. The maximum punishment is a three-year jail term.

A similar case has been filed against Azmi, the Samajwadi Party’s Mumbai chief, at Shivaji Park police station. Azmi, after a weeklong war of words with Raj, had made a fiery speech at a United National Progressive Alliance rally on February 3, the day of the violence.

UNPA leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh and N. Chandrababu Naidu were among the leaders who addressed the gathering.

Raj’s supporters and Samajwadi activists had clashed at the rally, following which Navnirman Sena workers attacked north Indian taxi drivers and hawkers near the venue.

Despite the FIRs, the police appear in no hurry to make the arrests. Joint commissioner (law and order) K.L. Prasad said the sections of the Indian Penal Code invoked against the two leaders were non-bailable but added they would be held “after the completion of formalities”.

Navnirman Sena spokesperson Shishir Shinde said the police had served a notice late tonight asking Raj not to hold public meetings or talk to the media but Raj had not accepted it. The notice was issued under Section 149 of the IPC in the interests of “maintaining harmony”.

Fearing a backlash from both political parties, security has been beefed up in the city.

A large police contingent has been deployed near Raj’s house in Shivaji Park. Protection has also been provided to the south Mumbai office of a weekly, whose latest issue features a morphed image of Raj on the cover and a caption that refers to him as “Mumbai’s Hitler”.

Pressure is mounting on the Vilasrao Deshmukh government to take action against Raj. Sources said the arrest was deferred because of tours in Maharashtra last week by President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

On Saturday, Raj accused Azmi of inciting the clashes, saying his own remarks and the attacks by his party workers were a “reaction” to the Samajwadi leader’s statements.

As the countdown to Raj’s arrest began, a group of Shiv Sena workers blackened “Mumbai welcomes you” signboards at the airport last evening and demanded new ones in Marathi.

The trouble follows Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s call to give local Marathi youths priority in recruitment at the airport, being renovated by the GVK group.