New Delhi: The Mumbai Police on Monday arrested former city mayor and Shiv Sena leader Vishwanath Mahadeshwar in connection with the attack on BJP leader Kirit Somaiya two days ago.
Somaiya alleged that Shiv Sainiks assaulted him and damaged his car on Saturday after he met the MP-MLA couple Navneet and Ravi Rana at the Khar Police station in central Mumbai.
The Ranas were arrested after they threatened to chant the Hanuman Chalisa in front of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private home ‘Matoshree’.
Somaiya and other party members met Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Monday and submitted a detailed report on the attack on this former Lok Sabha MP.
The report alleged that nearly 80 Shiv Sainiks assaulted Somaiya on Saturday, injuring him and shattering his car windows.
The Rana couple – close to the BJP — have been slapped with sedition and are in judicial custody in separate Maharashtra jails.
They have also been charged with Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and sections 37(1) and 135 of the Bombay Police Act.
A controversy on religious chanting continues in the state after Opposition leader, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, gave an ultimatum to the government to remove loudspeakers from all mosques by May 3.
The Maharashtra government conducted an all-party meet on Monday and it was decided that they would meet the Centre demanding it make a national-level rule on the use of loudspeakers.
Also read: Nadia minor was ‘gangraped’ at TMC leader’s son’s party by at least 3 men, finds CBI probe