NCP leader Jitendra Awhad arrested for disrupting Marathi movie on Shivaji

Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad was arrested on Friday in Mumbai in connection with the disruption of a show of the Marathi film Har Har Mahadeo earlier this week.

Nine of his supporters were also arrested, said a police official.

Awhad, the MLA from Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Thane city, tweeted that he was summoned to the Vartak Nagar police station in the afternoon and put under arrest.

On November 7, Awhad and his supporters barged into a multiplex in the city and stopped a show of "Har Har Mahadev", alleging that the film distorted the history of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Some cine-goers were also beaten up when they protested against the forcible stopping of the show, video footage of the incident showed.

A First Information Report was registered at Vartak Nagar police station under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (assault) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace following the incident.

Awhad was housing minister in the previous Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state.