Seven MNS workers held for vandalising Censor Board office

Seven members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) were arrested for allegedly ransacking the branch office of the Censor Board of India in south Mumbai for not appointing a Marathi person on its board, police said today.

The accused identified as Shashank Nagvekar, Siddhesh Ghosalkar, Sandeep Sawant, Vilas Sudrik, Raj Parte, Sumit Sarwade and Prashant Mishra had allegedly vandalised the office of the Central Board of Film Certification, located in Bharat Bhavan building on Walkeshwar Road, last afternoon.

The MNS workers damaged computers, window-panes andother articles in the office and also manhandled the staff, police said, adding an FIR has been registered against the accused.

Some of them were arrested yesterday and some today, police said.

Meanwhile, justifying the action, MNS president Raj Thackeray yesterday said, "in the month of June, we had submitted a letter to the Censor Board, requesting them to include artists from Marathi film and theatre on its board within a fortnight".

"However, the Censor Board said that Marathi artists would not be appointed in the next 15 years, let alone in 15 days. They will do whatever they want and should we quietly tolerate this?," he had asked.

Interestingly, the MNS chief had also demanded inclusion of artists from Bengali and Tamil film industries on the Censor Board.