Dadar police arrested three persons for assaulting four sadhus outside Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi.

The police said the three attackers are Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists and were identified with the help of a video footage.

Vishvanath Naik (42), Laxman Patil (42), and Kiran Kadivarekar (26) were arrested on Wednesday on charges of assault, rioting and criminal intimidation.

Milind Bharambe, deputy commissioner of police Zone V, said video footage of the assault shot by a news channel was used to identify them.

The police are now looking for the media persons who took video footage of the incident.

“The three attackers are residents of Dadar and when we recorded their statements, they identified themselves as MNS activists,” said Ashok Unde, senior police inspector of the Dadar police station.

Bharambe said, “We confirmed with the MNS, who agreed that the men belonged to the party.”

However, the MNS said the party had not ordered the attack on the sadhus. MNS spokespersons said the party had nothing to do with the incident. “They were locals, who were fed up with these sadhus as they squat across the place and do drugs,” said Sandeep Deshpande, MNS leader.

“One of the accused works with Larsen and Toubro. The three men were presented before the court on Wednesday afternoon and were released on a bail of Rs 7,000 each,” said Unde.

When asked about the motive behind the attack, Unde said the three accused told that police that they were annoyed by the filth spread by these sadhus in the locality and that these priests were addicts and were defaming the locality.