The Shivaji Nagar police released around 40 members of the Shiv Premi Jan Jagram Samiti after they were arrested at 9 pm last night for carrying out an agitation outside the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) office.

Approximately 5,000 members and other supporters of Shivaji Maharaj had called for the Dadoji Hatao Gherao Andolan at the PMC office.

The samiti demanded that mayor Mohansingh Rajpal remove the statue of Dadoji Konddeo, after the state government mentioned that he was not Shivaji Maharaj's teacher as mentioned in history.

Mukand Kakare, president of the samiti said, "We want the statue to be removed from the Lal Mahal, as it is official that he was not Shivaji Maharaj's guru. We have demanded that the corporation and mayor get the statue removed immediately."

Despite the demonstration being peaceful, protestors told MiD DAY that they were arrested by the police. "We fail to understand the reason behind it. Though we were released around 10.30 pm, why were we arrested in the first place?"

Soon after the incident security was beefed up at Lal Mahal and the PMC office.

Around 30 police officials from Shivaji Nagar and Faraskhana police station, SRP and CRPF officials were stationed at Lal Mahal at the time of going to press.