The vice president of the BJP's Maharashtra unit, Kirit Somaiya, tweeted on Wednesday that he had been detained and arrested by police near his home in the Mulund area of Mumbai.
Somaiya tweeted, "It's pity that Mumbai Police has detained Me at my residential premises (NilamNagar Mulund) and stopped me from going to the residence of Anant Karmuse, whom Jitendra Awhad men has beaten yesterday, I am supposed to meet Anant Karmuse today at 11am today".
Somaiya later tweeted “Police has arrested me from my residential premises/Office from NilamNagar Mulund, and now taken to Mulund East navghar police station”.
However, the Mumbai Police told local mediapersons that Somaiya was not arrested, but had been taken to the police station as he wanted to leave his residence amid the lockdown without citing an ‘emergency’ reason.
Somaiya was planning to meet Anant Karmuse, a resident of Ghodbunder, who alleged he had been assaulted by aides of NCP Minister Jitendra Awhad on Sunday night. Karmuse had reportedly shared a morphed image of Awhad on Facebook after the minister criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his request to people to light candles and torches on April 9.
Karmuse, a civil engineer, claimed Awhad's supporters took him to Awhad's residence and assaulted him with bamboos sticks and iron rods in the presence of two police constables.
Following the allegation, BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis demanded the removal of Awhad as housing minister.
"This is a serious incident where private bodyguards of a minister beat up a civilian by bringing him to his home. The minister was present when the man was being thrashed," the BJP leader and former chief minister told NDTV.
