Five held after Kirit Somaiya’s rally attacked by ‘Sena’ men

MUMBAI: A day after Bhartiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya alleged an assault on party cadres by Shiv Sena workers during the symbolic burning down of the ‘Ravan

MUMBAI: A day after Bhartiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya alleged an assault on party cadres by Shiv Sena workers during the symbolic burning down of the ‘Ravan of BMC mafia’ in Mulund, the Navghar police arrested five people on Wednesday.

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“We have arrested five people and they have been remanded in police custody for a day,” said Rajesh Pradhan, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 7. The arrested people were identified as Kiran Nande, 40, Nilesh Sawant, 37, Nilesh Thakkar, 42, Sunil S, 41, and Kishore Bhoir, 42. Pradhan refused to divulge further details about the political allegiance of the arrested men.

During the Dussehra celebrations at Neelam Nagar, the purported Sena workers stormed into the venue and assaulted the participants.

Somaiya was whisked away from the site. He later sat on a dharna demanding that the accused be arrested immediately. The controversy started when he themed the event on the alleged misappropriation at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and terming the event as burning of “Ravan of BMC mafia”.

Somaiya supporters alleged that the accused came in buses and later started to assault the participants, including women. He has taken up the issue of pothole-free city and alleged rampant corruption in the civic body. In the last eight months, the civic commissioner has initiated probes into the roads department over the shoddy state of roads, storm water drains department over the de-silting scam etc.