The train on fire at Barh. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Mumbai, Oct. 22: Raj Thackeray today walked out of police custody and went home on bail as thousands of passengers in the east bore the brunt of Sunday’s savagery.

Thackeray, 39, got bail from a court in Kalyan where a case was filed against him for allegedly inciting violence against railway examinees from Bihar.

But the Vilasrao Deshmukh government appears to have decided to pin him down by weaving a web of around 25 cases across the state to ensure that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief remains busy with litigations.

As soon as bail was granted, a team of Government Railway Police furnished warrants to take Thackeray’s custody in connection with two cases of damage to property. However, Thackeray’s lawyers had simultaneously moved the Kalyan sessions court, which granted anticipatory bail till Friday (October 24).

Accompanied by wife Sharmila, Thackeray, who spent a quiet night in the lock-up of Manpada police station and had a spartan meal of roti, daal and subzi, drove into Krishna Kunj — his home in Mumbai’s Dadar — around 5pm.

By that time in the distant east, between 15,000 and 20,000 passengers in Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal had been left stranded with over 30 trains being cancelled following the backlash against the Maharashtra mayhem.

Protesters in Patna district laid siege to Barh railway station and, after asking passengers to get off, torched an AC coach of the Danapur-Durg South Bihar Express.

Sensing the mood, the railways cancelled several north-bound trains. Among them were the Rajdhani Express (from Howrah and Sealdah), Howrah-New Delhi Puja Special, Kalka Mail, Amritsar Mail and Doon Express.