Maha BJP leaders meet Union Home Secy, demand probe in attack on Kirit Somaiya

New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) The BJP leaders of Maharashtra, including Kirit Somaiya on Monday met Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla here and apprised him about the prevailing situation and demanded a probe into the attacks on Somaiya, who has 'Z' security protection.

The delegation also demanded that a central team be sent to the state to review the situation where the BJP leaders are being targetted by the ruling party's cadre.

Somaiya, after meeting Bhalla, said the Home Secretary has been studying the situation in the state and if needed a special team would be sent to Maharashtra.

Somaiya, while talking to the media after the meeting, said that there was an urgent need to send a central team to Maharashtra. "From a slum dweller to the elected representative, all are being attacked in Maharashtra by the ruling party workers," Somaiya said.

Referring to the attack on him on Saturday evening in Khar police station in Mumbai, Somaiya said that despite his Z category protection, he was attacked in the police station premises on Sunday. "This was an attempt to kill me," Somaiya alleged.

On Saturday night, some Shiv Sena supporters allegedly threw footwear and water bottles at Somaiya's SUV when he was leaving the Khar police station in Mumbai where he went to see arrested independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana. Both Navneet Rana and her husband Ravi Rana earlier had given a call for chanting Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree, which later erupted into a major controversy and angered the Sena cadres.

On Sunday, the senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said that the state BJP leadership will complain to Union Home Secretary against the Mumbai Police's failure to protect former party MP Kirit Somaiya, who has been accorded 'Z' category security.