Raj Thackeray acquitted in 2008 attack on Railway exam candidates

Eighteen years after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena workers assaulted migrants who had come to give a 2008 All India Railway recruitment exam in Kalyan, MNS President Raj Thackeray was acquitted by a Thane sessions court. The Maharashtra government had arrested and charged Thackeray for inciting his supporters to beat up north Indian migrants especially those from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had come to give the exams on 19th October 2008. The assault on north Indian migrants had caused a political and social stir with revenge attacks on properties connected to Maharashtra in other parts of the country.

In its judgement acquitting Raj and seven others in the case, sessions court judge Abhijeet Kulkarni held that the prosecution had failed to present any concrete evidence to prove the charges against the accused. It agreed with Raj's defence that the MNS President was not in Kalyan and was present in Nashik on the day of the violence and hence he had no connection to the assault. Thackeray and seven other MNS leaders were charged for rioting, unlawful assembly and obstructing public servants from discharging their duties. The court also held that the prosecution failed to prove that those assaulting the North Indian migrants were MNS functionaries.

One of the lawyers who was defending Raj, Sayaji Nagare said that all the eight accused in the case were acquitted as the court held that there was no evidence against them. "The court looked at all the evidence and said that there was no evidence to connect the current persons to the crime."


The violence occurred after Raj who has claimed to espouse the cause of the 'sons of the soil' had then claimed that there was a conspiracy to take over government jobs like railways from those living in the state and that more migrants were being given jobs.