MUMBAI: More than 25 policemen were on Thursday injured in stone pelting after the Shiv Sena's 'jail bharo' agitation at Belapur, to protest the Mahamumbai SEZ of Reliance, turned violent.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, who led the protest, was arrested along with Anant Tare Shirish Gharat and Sena Raigad unit chief Babban Patil.

The protestors resorted to stone pelting without any provocation and they had come prepared to create trouble, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

The Sena workers threw stones at vehicles parked inside the CIDCO Bhavan premises, damaging over 80 vehicles, DCP (Crime) Amar Jadhav said, adding windscreens and windows of more than seven Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport buses parked at the CBD bus depot were also damaged.

Police lobbed teargas shells to control the crowd while media persons covering the incident also came under attack.

Speaking to reporters at CBD police station, where he was taken after arrest, Joshi said "this is the handiwork of some persons who wanted to sabotage the agitation."

He claimed those who pelted stones were not Shiv Sainiks. The former Lok Sabha speaker also threatened to intensify the stir if the state government continued with the land acquisition policy for SEZs.

The injured policemen were admitted to hospitals in Vashi, Belapur and Kalamboli.

The protestors also blocked the Mumbai-Pune highway at Kamothe and Kalamboli, bringing the traffic to a halt.