MUMBAI, Feb 9: Nineteen people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of a local politician at a campaign event in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, a police official said on Saturday.

“We have arrested 19 people in connection with the incident,” Parvinder S. Pasricha, the state’s top police official, said on Saturday.

The arrests came two days after dozens of men set upon Gyaneshwar Sathawane at a political gathering in front of scores of onlookers, including local police, a state minister said.

“Some 200 or 300 attacked one of our workers,” state public works minister Anil Deshmukh said on Saturday, alleging the men were political rivals from the right-wing nationalist Shiv Sena group.—AFP