A strong posse of policemen deployed to ensure peace during the function remained silent spectators as Gawli's men, travelling in an ambulance with tinted glasses, went on a spree to distribute the printed material for about 45 minutes.

When contacted, the top police officials said they had no legal authority whatsoever to prevent the workers of Gawli's Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) from distributing the ``gifts'' among the people as the organisation was legitimate. However, they said, a through probe would be conducted to find out the purpose of distributing the ``gifts.''

here were intelligence reports that Gawli's wife, Asha, who has been active in the field of ``social work'' for the last couple of years, is likely to come to Pune and attend a function to pay homage to Dr Ambedkar in a bid to gain public support. However, she did not show up.

Over 40,000 followers of Dr Ambedkar had thronged the vicinity of the district collector's office and the garden in its front where Dr Ambedkar's statue is located since early Wednesday morning. Several prominent political leaders and social workers garlanded Dr Ambedkar's statue and paid tribute to him in the morning. Various organisations and political parties had also organised a public meeting to pay a homage to Dr Ambedkar.

The meeting was going on when an ambulance with its tinted glasses rolled over reached there. Arun Gawli's name and his designation as the chief of ABS was painted on the ambulance (MH 01/H 2123).

A man travelling in the ambulance distributed the copies of a biography of Dr Ambedkar along with the broachers advertising a Bhavani Peth based cooperative bank as well various schemes of an insurance company to the people present in front of the collectorate office for nearly half an hour. Later, the ambulance was parked near the main gate of Sassoon hospital for about 15 minutes.

The book, which was distributed by Gawli's men, was released by a Pune based publishing house. According to prominent book sellers in the city, the book is available in open market at Rs 10 per copy. Each of the copies distributed by the people travelling in the ambulance bore a seal saying that it was a free gift from ABS chief ``Arunbhau'' Gawli to the followers of Dr Ambedkar.