Ramesh Lajpatrai Agarwal (35) alias Tony was arrested by crime branch sleuths near his Mulund residence at around 10.30 pm on Saturday, police said. He was produced before the 37th Esplanade Court this afternoon. In the remand application, police accused Tony of not caring to save the lives of the five youths who fell into a well when trying to evade a police squad last Sunday and died. Tony was present at the spot when the incident happened. He knew there was a well in the vicinity and yet took no measures to avert the accident, police added.

Tony has been charged with causing the death of innocents belonging to the Scheduled Castes, and the Sections under which he was earlier booked - 304 A and 379 - have been now replaced with Sections 304 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code. The sectionswere altered after additional commissioner of police (north-east) Yadavrao Pawar ordered an inquiry into the incident and three special teams were formed to nab Agarwal. Police have also booked the Congress leader under provisions of R(3)2 of the Scheduled Castes Act.

Principal Judge A S Aguiar of the City Civil and Sessions Court had on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Agarwal. Tony moved Sessions Court after he was declared absconding in the case.

In his application, he had submitted that as per a 1994 agreement, he had given seven shops at Maruti Arcade near Mulund railway station to Vidula Education Centre, a franchisee of Aptech Computer Education run by Nitin Desai, on a leave and licence basis. According to the plea, the shops were to be handed over to Agarwal on April 4, '99. The agreement had expired on February 29, '98.

However, on April 3, Desai requested Agarwal to hand over the shops back to the Centre as they were unable to find another place. Agarwal refused, and onApril 4, the victims came to the shop and tried to take forcible possession of the shops, the application said. Tony was the district president of the Congress Seva Dal between 1989-93.