In a farce enacted by the city police in compliance with a Sessions Court order, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was arrested at his Bandra residence ‘Matoshree’ and immediately set free on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 on Friday.

The bailable warrant against Mr Thackeray was issued by Additional Sessions Judge S J Shah on Thursday on a complaint filed by a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) activist Munna Tripathi of Andheri. He had accused the Sena chief of publishing provocative articles in his newspaper ‘Saamna’ on July 20, 2006, against north Indians.

The case against Thackeray was  registered at a railway mobile court at Andheri, which had issued summons and warrants against Thackeray.

Thackeray had ignored summons by the railway court and the police too failed to execute warrants issued by it. The  complainant then moved the District and Sessions Court, seeking direction to the police to execute the warrant.

Following the Sessions Court orders, the Kherwadi police visited Thackeray’s residence and showed him as “arrested” before executing the bail bond. The police team was led by Senior Inspector B R Gire.

The court has already exempted Thackeray from appearing in person before the railway court on September 27, when the next hearing is scheduled.