Mumbai: The Deonar police arrested two alleged supporters of former NCP MP Sanjay Dina Patil and an alleged supporter of the party’s spokesperson Nawab Malik on Wednesday for their alleged roles in a fight that erupted between the duo’s followers on Tuesday night at a public meeting attended by party workers.
On Tuesday, Mr Malik was present at a workers’ meeting in Deonar when Mr Patil arrived there, after which a fight ensued between their supporters. The police said that Mr Patil was not invited for the public meeting, but he barged in nonetheless and allegedly created a ruckus due to issues related to intra-party appointments at the ward level.
The police has seized the guns of Mr Patil and his bodyguard and arrested a man who had brandished a sword at the meeting. The police is checking the call records of Mr Malik and Mr Patil to verify if the latter had been threatening the former since morning.
Mr Patil, meanwhile, has registered cross complaint against Mr Malik, his brother and one other party member.
Deonar police’s SPI Dattatrey Shinde said, “Mr Patil was threatening other people to not attend the public meeting that Mr Malik had called.” He added that the police is taking the statements of those people who Mr Patil had threatened. Mr Malik also said in his statement that Mr Patil had called him twice to threaten him, but he had ignored these calls.
Mr Malik also alleged that a man accompanying Mr Patil fired had four rounds in the hall where the meeting took place. The Deonar police recovered two guns from Mr Patil and his bodyguard. The three people who have been arrested are Abdul Kalam, Sufiyan Qureshi and Israr Yasin Madiyar.
DCP (zone 6) Sahaji Umap said, “We have arrested three accused in the case. There will be a few more arrests soon.”
