In fresh arrests made in connection with the lynching of a 28-year-old IT professional who allegedly uploaded derogatory pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on a Facebook page, the Pune police on Thursday took into custody four more

Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) activists, taking the total number of arrests so far in the case to 17.

Having arrested 13 activists belonging to the HRS till late on Wednesday night, the crime branch sleuths of the Pune police booked  four more activists for the murder of Shaikh Mohisin Siddiqui, who was beaten to death allegedly by the activists of the radical Hindu outfit on Monday night.

All the arrested HRS activists have been booked under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 147 (rioting) of Indian Penal Code.

Shaikh, a native of Solapur who worked as an IT manager, was returning along to his rented flat in Pune’s Hadapsar locality after offering prayers at a local Masjid, when a mob of nearly 20 HRS activists attacked him with hockey sticks, cricket bats and stones on Monday night.

After Shaikh’s murder, the crime branch sleuths swiftly investigated the case and found that HRS was behind the crime. The police had tracked down seven HRS-linked youngsters on Tuesday morning, while they arrested six members of the same outfit on Wednesday.

The investigators rounded up another four HRS activists on Thursday.

Siddiqui   had earned wrath of the Hindu Rashtra Sena, after he allegedly uploaded the derogatory pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on his Facebook page and circulated the same on WhatsApp link on Saturday.

The derogatory photographs had triggered communal tension in Pune, where the activists of Hindu outfits had indulged in violence during the weekend and damaged nearly 150-odd public  transport buses and private vehicles. The Pune city had also observed a bandh over the issue on Sunday.