Twenty four NCP activists arrested for allegedly vandalising the Aam Aadmi Party’s office in suburban Andheri were on Sunday produced before a court which remanded them in judicial custody.

Meanwhile, AAP leader Mayank Gandhi, who was detained at MIDC police station on Saturday, was released late night.

According to Andheri police, 24 activists including Prithiviraj Maske (north-west district NCP president) and Amol Matele (president of NCP students’ wing), who were arrested after the attack, were produced before a holiday court which remanded them in judicial custody.

The accused applied for bail, but the court kept the hearing for Monday, making them to spend a night in Arthur Road jail.

The group allegedly entered the second floor of AAP office at Chakala and tore up and burnt the posters of Arvind Kejriwal around 2.30 PM. They also burnt Kejriwal’s effigy. Later, the NCP workers were held by Andheri police.

Following the attack, AAP leader Mayank Gandhi along with his associates was heading for the NCP office in suburban Juhu to lodge a protest when he was detained for several hours by MIDC police station before being released late last night.

The attack comes three days after AAP leader Anjali Damania targeted senior NCP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, saying that Mumbai citizens were paying high electricity charges due to corruption and inefficiency of the state power ministry.

Observing that a wife who is financially independent cannot claim maintenance from her estranged husband, the Bombay High Court has refused to grant relief to a 61-year-old woman seeking monthly maintenance.

A division bench of Justices VK Tahilramani and P N Deshmukh was hearing a petition filed by the woman challenging an October 2012 order passed by a family court refusing to direct her 65-year-old estranged husband to pay her the sum of Rs. 15000 per month.

The husband had opposed the petition saying he has already handed over full possession of one of his flats in suburban Andheri to his wife and also given her custody of fixed deposits worth Rs. 50 lakh he had opened for her.

The court noted that apart from Rs. 50 lakh, the husband had earlier also deposited Rs. two lakh by way of interim maintenance to his wife which she has deposited in the bank as fixed deposit.

“In the present case, it is seen that the wife is getting more than Rs. 37,500 per month as interest. She has sufficient money in her bank account. In addition, her son is providing her money every month. No one is dependent on her and she has sufficient income for her survival,” the court said.

The bench observed that while claiming maintenance the wife has to prove that she does not have any permanent source of income to maintain herself and that she is unable to maintain herself financially.

“It is well settled law that a wife who has no sufficient permanent source of income, can only claim and get maintenance from her husband who is having sufficient means. The burden lies on the wife to prove that the husband has refused and neglected to maintain her though he is having sufficient means,” the court said.

In his efforts to make the police more public-friendly and improve their image, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has instructed all the police stations to display a board stating that complainant is an important person who is “doing a favour” by giving the police an opportunity to serve him/her.

Maria came up with this idea to make the police imbibe, and remind them, the basics of policing through the message board, said Deputy Police Commissioner (spokesperson) Mahesh Patil.

According to Patil, the Commissioner has instructed the officers to look at the victim as the most important person, and asked all the 92 police stations in the city to display a message, in both Marathi and English.

It reads: “A complainant is the most important person in our police station. He is not an interruption to our work; He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider for our station; He is a part of it. We are not doing a favour by serving him. He is doing a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

After taking charge as the commissioner last week, Maria, who hails from the city, promised service-oriented and public-friendly police force.

At a marathon meeting with police officers recently, he announced a slew of measures for safety and security of women and senior citizens, a drive against street crime, and against drug-supplying gangs, among others things.

The aim of the latest initiative is not only to make citizens or victims more comfortable visiting the police stations, but also to improve the image of the city police force, said senior police officers.

A massive fire gutted a tyre manufacturing unit, situated alongside Nahur suburban railway station near Bhandup in north-eastern Mumbai and also disrupted train services, officials said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) disaster management cell said that as many as 10 fire tenders and an equal number of water tankers have been rushed to the spot, to extinguish the blaze, which is yet to be brought under control.

“Efforts by the fire brigade personnel are on to douse the blaze. There was still no details of any casualties or loss of property,” the BMC official said.

Electricity supply to the Nahur suburban railway station had to be shut down due to the fire in the Ceat tyre factory.

A senior railway official said that suburban local trains running towards Kalyan from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station, on the Central Line, were running late by at least half-an-hour after trains moving on the slow track had to be diverted onto the fast track beyond the Vikhroli suburban railway station.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania on Sunday alleged that NCP chief and union minister Sharad Pawar and spokesperson Nawab Malik were responsible for the attack on the AAP state party office in Mumbai on Saturday.

Damania told that barely three days ago, the AAP had exposed an alleged scam in the power department headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar.

“We exposed their power scam. They (Sharad Pawar and Malik) seem to have got angry and instigated the attack on our office,” Damania said.

However, refuting the allegation, Malik said in Mumbai that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has already issued show cause notice to party activists for the attack on the AAP office and necessary action would be initiated against those responsible for it.

“Regarding the AAP’s agitation to sweep the NCP offices in the state, I appeal to them to sweep clean their respective homes instead so that their domestic help can get a day off,” Malik said.

Malik was referring to AAP leader Mayank Gandhi’s statement Saturday that party activists would adopt a Gandhian form of retaliation and “sweep clean” all NCP offices in Maharashtra with brooms, the AAP’s poll symbol.

On Saturday, police stopped AAP activists from proceeding to an NCP office and detained them for several hours.

On Sunday, there was a heated exchange and a minor scuffle between AAP and NCP activists when the former trooped down with brooms to sweep the NCP office in Aurangabad.

With the arrest of a 29-year-old man, the Thane police today claimed to have solved the mystery surrounding the murder of a college-going girl in Kalyan in Thane district.

The body of Rajani Rajkumar Verma, who had left home on Thursday for her classes, was found in the fields behind the Apsara Bar yesterday morning.

She had as many as 13 stab wounds, police said.

Today the police arrested Sarveshkumar Sambudayal Verma, who was employed in the tailoring shop run by her father.

He was related to the victim’s mother.

Additional Commissioner of Police Dr. Ravindra Singhal said that police suspected him after learning that Sarveshkumar had cut his finger recently.

His questioning revealed that he had a relationship with the victim, who had become pregnant. On Thursday, she called him to the spot as she wanted money for an abortion.

This led to a quarrel, during which he strangulated her with her scarf, and stabbed her, police said.

Further investigation is on in the case.