On 19 October 2008, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists attacked North Indian candidates appearing for the All India Railway Recruitment Board entrance exam for the Western region in Mumbai, India. The attacks invoked a quick reaction from Bihar members of the Union Government in Delhi, notably the Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his cabinet colleague, Ram Vilas Paswan. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar spoke to his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh and urged him to provide protection to the migrants from Bihar. Lalu called for the MNS to be shut down and called Raj Thackeray, its leader, a "mental case." Pawan Mahto, a resident of Bara-Khurd village in Nalanda district, Bihar died after being assaulted by MNS activists. However, railway police claimed, based on the CCTV footage, that Pawan had died due to an accident at Andheri station after slipping at a platform. On 20 October 2008, Thackeray was arrested in Ratnagiri after Mumbai police had received a non-bailable warrant issued by a Jamshedpur court against the MNS chief. Incident MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) and Shiv Sena activists attacked 13 railway board examination centres in suburban Mumbai to protest against "inadequate representation" of locals of Maharashtra in the above said exams. As per MNS, locals i.e. Maharashtrians should be given priority over others as the railway posts were vacant in Maharashtra. The applications received from most of the locals of Maharashtra were rejected and if the same were accepted they were not provided with hall tickets. Moreover, the applications received from locals residing in Bihar were accepted and issued Hall Tickets to sit in the exam hall. Irked by such irresponsible behaviour of Railways, MNS workers entered the examination halls and vacated all the people of bihar and stopped them from giving the exams. Violence Raj's arrest ignited violence by his supporters in large parts of the city forcing it to shut down. Irate supporters went on the rampage torching public transport and telling office goers to return home. Many shops and commercial establishments, especially those run or managed by non-Maharashtrians, chose not to open at all to avoid trouble. Raj, whose MNS workers Sunday attacked non-Maharashtrians appearing for the railway board examination, was brought from Ratnagiri, about 250 km from here, to be produced at the Bandra court, where he was summoned for. There was mayhem outside the court premises with large crowds gathering around restively