Shiv Sena’s Pune unit chief Sanjay More and five others were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly attacking the vehicle of former Maharashtra minister Uday Samant, ANI reported, citing a police official.
They have been remanded in police custody till August 6, reported PTI.
On Tuesday night, a group of unidentified persons surrounded Samant’s car in the city’s Katraj area, shouted slogans and allegedly smashed a window of the vehicle. The unidentified attackers were booked on charges of attempt to murder, rioting and using criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty.
The attack took place when Samant, one of the Shiv Sena MLAs who had rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray government, was on his way to a rally attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, reported The Indian Express. The police had to use force to disperse the mob.
On Wednesday, the Mumbai Police said Shiv Sena’s Hingoli district liaison chief Baban Thorat was detained for allegedly provoking party members to attack Samant’s car. He was brought to Pune where he was arrested.
Samant alleged that the attack was a planned one. The former minister suggested he was attacked as he had backed Shinde during the Maharashtra political crisis.
“Will you now kill me because I changed my thought process [to support Shinde]?” he wrote in a tweet. “I am calm but I am not helpless. Time is the solution to all this. Please do not test my patience.”
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