Thane court acquits MNS chief Raj Thackeray, seven others in 2008 railway exam assault case

Earlier this month, Thackeray told the court that allegations against him were false and that he was not in the city but in Nashik at that time.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Abhijeet Kulkarni said that the accused were being acquitted for lack of evidence. “The allegations against accused number 8 (Thackeray) are that he has through his speeches instigated the other accused. However, there has not been a single witness to prove this claim,” the court said. The court said that a CD containing a purported speech by Thackeray, with a running time of 1 minutes, 39 seconds, was not proved as there was no required certificate to present it as evidence as per law. The court also said that the investigating officer had accepted during his deposition that the CD was lying in an unsealed condition, gathering dust at the police station between 2013 to 2026.

The court added that the presence of the other accused at the spot was also not proved.

Defence lawyers for the MNS workers and Thackeray had told the court that there was no evidence, including any eyewitnesses, to prove the allegations against the accused. The prosecution examined 12 witnesses, including two aspirants who were assaulted at the station. They told the court they were sleeping at the station when they were attacked. The defence lawyers submitted that they had not identified the accused and that the men charged were falsely implicated. Lawyer Sayaji Nangre representing Thackeray had told court that the prosecution had failed to link him to the violence.

The lawyers also claimed the police probe had several discrepancies, including the timing of the panchnamas used to establish independent proof of the offences. The lawyers had also told the court that the witnesses had not identified the alleged attackers during the trial.

In 2008, an All India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam for the western region was held in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai. Several outstation candidates, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, were in the city for the exam.

The police said that members of the party, formed in 2006, were agitating outside several exam centres, blocking roads and shouting slogans. The MNS leaders had then said that locals should be given preference over outstation candidates in the exams.

The incident had also sparked a political controversy, with several leaders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar criticising the MNS’ stance against aspirant candidates.