``Maharshtra ke teen hi gunde, Joshi, Bal Thackeray aur Munde.'' ``Bade sharm ki baat hai, police unke sath hai,'' they shouted outside Churchgate station before being rounded up by the Cuff Parade police.

The public mood against the Shiv Sena and state government was on full display as a small moteley but loud group of protesters condemned yesterday's ransaking of the BCCI office on Monday. The protestors, all public spirited citizens including city-based senior journalists with Nikhil Wagle, editor of Marathi eveninger Mahanagar at the forefront resorted to dharna at 5 pm. They demanded the arrest of Bal Thackeray and resignation of Manohar Joshi, Gopinath Munde and L KAdvani. Wagle and others were arrested by the Cuffe Parade police. Jatin Desai, senior journalist from Gujarati Mid-Day was allegedly harrassed and beaten by the police at Cuffe Parade in a darkened room.

Desai said that they would intensify the agitation against the Sena's designs to disrupt the India-Pakistan cricket series by holding more such protests from tommorow till action is taken against those responsible for the insane vandalism.

Hussain Dalvai, Samajwadi party state chief said, ``Mumbaikars were eager for the indo-pak cricket matches, but the shiv sena just for the sake of political mileage is disrupting the series by their acts of vandalism, which included digging of the pitch at the ferozshah kotla grounds at new delhi a fortnight ago, and yesterday's ransacking of the bcci office. '' Amid slogans like `Joshi, Munde Hai hai' and bal Thackeray Murdabad, he added, ``Now the Sena is playing with the middle class person's sentiments by disrupting cricket. The midle class maharashtrian hasfinally seen the Sena's true colour.'' Slogans were also raised against the state sports minister Prataprao Jadhav for his alleged threats to indian players who would play against Pakistan.

Though the Sena chief had owned responsibility for the digging of pitch at Delhi, it has denied that sainiks were involved in the ransacking of the BCCI office yesterday, when the union home minister L K Advani was in town.

The city police wich has failed to arrest anyone so far in Monday's attack were however quick in whisking away 30-odd protesters including 8-10 women. They resorted to lathi charge and force as they beat and dragged Desai and others into vans. Samajwadi Party city chief Abu Asim Azmi who arrived later and joined the logan shouting group was also led away by the police to the Cuffe Parade Police station.

However he received preferential treatment and was bundled into a separate police car. Other protesters including women were being packed like cattle into vans and taken to the cuffe paradepolice station. Among them was a young social worker Priti Verma who had joined the protest on the spot and Vidya Chavan, state general secretary of Janta Dal. Chavan said, ``Maharashtra does not want Thackeray's Goonda Raj.''

Meanwhile, P S Pasricha, joint commissioner of police (Law and Order) went to Cuffe Parade police station to assess the situation which had taken a turn for the worse. He found protesters squatting on a hunger strike at the police station premises. They were joined by Madhukar Pichad, leader of opposition. At around 9.30 pm later, a huge mob of nearly 600-odd opposition supporters arrived at the police station and began raising slogans against Bal Thackeray.

At that point the police which was refusing to register a complaint against Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) K L Bishnoi for manhandling was finally registered.

Pasricha told Exress Newsline,``we will do a medical examination first of those beaten and then see what is to be done. '' However he later announcedthat a one member enquiry committee has been set up comprising K Subramaniam, Additional Commissioner of Police (South region) who will submit a report within six days on today's incident.He also added that a high level enquiry was being conducted into the statement made by sports minister Jadhav recently.

He informed, ``Security cover has been provided to BCCI, Wankhede, Brabourne stadium and cricket Club of India(CI). Some key personalities like Raj Singh Dungarpurkar, Mhd Azaradduni, sachin tendulkar, ajit wadekar have also been provided with security.''

However Pasricha refused to comment on how many men have been deployed. Sharad Diwadkar who was assaulted yesterday met senior police officials and put the estimated loss of property at BCCI office at Rs 14 lakh. He tild the police that the women employees were terrified when the attackers barged into the office premises, He however refused to identify the attackers and said that they were anti-social elements.

Deputy Comissioner of Police (DCP) KL Bishnoi told Express Newsline that the protesters were being taken away for having ``violated prohibitory orders of the police besides violating the high court ban on protests in public places.'' He refused to say under what section but added that they would be let off under a personal bond. However later he refused to register a case against any of the protesters and asked them to go.

Meanwhile deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde was also expected to rush to Cuffe Parade Police station later in the night informed.