NAVI MUMBAI: Four Ghansoli residents were arrested on Tuesday by the Rabale police for assaulting tree census workers on October 16. Also, the four GPS machines they had snatched were recovered and returned, however, one of the machines were badly damaged, cops said.

The accused include Santosh Patil (43), Rajeev Vishwakarma (19), Gautam Dev (40) and Shankar Patil (49). “We kept telling them that we were only counting trees, howevere, they continued to beat and slap us,” a member of SAAR IT, Resources company in-charge of tree census, said. The attackers are politically linked to the former corporator, which is why they were not afraid of the law, he added.

