A day after ten Shiv Sena workers were arrested for allegedly storming into the BCCI office and protesting against planned talks with PCB chief Shaharyar Khan, police arrested nine more party workers, including four shakha pramukhs (branch heads).

The total number of those arrested in this case has gone up to 19.

After the arrest, the accused were produced in a local court which granted bail to them on a bond of Rs. 2,000 each.

The nine accused were identified as Shiv Sena shakha pramukh of ward no. 225 Santosh Veer (40), shakha pramukh of ward no. 212 Manohar Patil (50), shakha pramukh of ward no.

226 Siddhesh Mandgaonkar (30), shakha pramukh of ward no. 211 Vijay Surve (65), Kiran Balsaraf (43), Dharmesh Mishra (25), Nilesh Ahirekar (38), Manish Surve (37) and Gulab Ugarej (30), police said.

“These Sena workers were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and violating Police Commissioner’s order to refrain from such assembling. Our team picked them up from different locations,” said Dhananjay Kulkarni, spokesperson of Mumbai Police.

He said IPC sections 141 (unlawful assembly), 143, 149 and 37(1) and also section 135 of the Mumbai Police Act have been slapped against the nine accused.

According to Kulkarni, the police are looking for some more Sena workers to be arrested.

Over a hundred Shiv Sena workers allegedly stormed into the BCCI headquarters in south Mumbai where its president Shashank Manohar was to meet the PCB officials, he said.

Last Monday, the Mumbai police had arrested six Sena workers for blackening the face of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Chairman Sudheendra Kulkarni, ahead of former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book launch in the city.

Agitating students of FTII held one more round of talks with the government but there were no indications of an immediate end to the four-month-old deadlock over appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as its Chairman.

The students, who have been demanding removal of Chauhan as well as four society members of the prestigious film and television institute based in Pune, held 5th round of talks with Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for about three hours to find a resolution to the matter.

Various issues, including the backlog of academic sessions, were discussed during the meeting.

However, there was no indication of an immediate end to the four-month-old strike.

Rathore said the meeting saw complex issues come up for discussion, including how the 2008 batch has still not been able to complete its course or how the 2011 batch has been able to complete only one year of its course.

“Even if we have to hire more studios or if we have to provide them Doordarshan studios in Mumbai, the main thing is that students should pass this course, get diplomas and do something in their life. This is the most important thing for students,” Rathore said.

With regard to demands for removal of Chauhan and some society members, the minister said the FTII society was constituted after consulting all the members and the composition was acceptable to everyone. “However, later some people gave different opinions,” he added.

When a reporter asked whether there was any discussion about the “contentious” appointment of Chauhan as the FTII council chief, Rathore claimed that the issue was “not contentious”.

The students, however, spoke differently, saying that not just Chauhan, the appointment of four other FTII society members, too, was also contentious.

Vikas Urs, one of the students, said they would go back and have discussions with other students about the next course of action.

“We have discussed all appointments, including the appointment of Chauhan, and all other issues. The ministry has said they will go back and discuss and we will also go back to our campus and discuss all this,” he said.

Urs said the students have asked the ministry to have a relook at the appointments of not just Gajendra Chauhan but also four society members. “All the five appointments are contentious,” he said.

Asked whether a date for another meeting had been decided, Urs said the I&B ministry should be asked about that.

Mumbai police on Tuesday issued a notice banning photography and publishing pictures of Durga idols during immersion that will take place from October 22-24.

The scope of ban also implies on idols half-submerged or lying at the shores or while being taken by BMC workers for re-immersion on the three days.

The decision has taken keeping in mind that pictures or videos of idol immersion may hurt the religious sentiments, which may result into disturbance of public peace and tranquillity, according to a statement issued by Mumbai police here today.

City police in this connection has invoked section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (Act no II of 1973).

“I am empowered under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (Act no II of 1973) in exercises of the said powers do hereby order that no person shall take photographs of idols floating or half-submerged after immersion is over and shall not publish or circulate same,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Barkund was quoted as saying in the statement.

The order would be effective from October 22 to 24, it said, adding, if anyone is found to be not abiding by it would face investigation or legal proceedings, penalty or forfeiture or punishment.

Earlier, on July 30 this year, Mumbai police had put ban on photography and videography during the funeral of 1993 serial blasts convict Yakub Memon, who was hanged to death in Nagpur Central jail before being buried in a graveyard in South Mumbai.