BJP Mumbai MP Kirit Somaiya alleges mafia plot to kill him

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya on Thursday alleged that an attempt was made on his life by gangsters and 'mafia agents' near his home in suburban Mulund two days ago.

In a letter addressed to Mumbai Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar, he has demanded a probe into the 'mafia conspiracy' to eliminate him and sought stringent action against those involved in the attack.

The 62-year-old Lok Sabha Member from Mumbai North-East constituency said that on Dussehra, around 100 goons were waiting for him with arms in vehicles near the Ravan Dahan venue in Mulund, north-east Mumbai.

"After 'Mafia Ravan Dahan', after most of the BJP activists left, when I came out to board my car, suddenly they rushed to me with 'hathiyars' (arms)," Somaiya said in his complaint to Padsalgikar.

"It seems their plan was to kill/incapacitate me to protect their Boss/Mafiasa. It was a well-designed attack of the group/guns/mafias/party," he added.

The Dussehra celebrations became controversial after Somaiya decided to burn an 'effigy of corrupt mafia' in the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation, as 'Mafia Ravan Dahan', to which Shiv Sainiks took strong objection.

Though in the police complaint, Somaiya has refrained from mentioning the Shiv Sena, in public he has alleged that the attack was carried out by that party's activists.

He added that the police security guard provided to him rushed to his rescue and saved him from the assailants that evening.

The police have so far arrested around 13 persons in connection with the incident in which seven BJP activists were also injured as they got into a scuffle at the venue.

Since the past few days, Somaiya has targeted the BJP ally in the BMC, state government and the Centre, and charged that the BMC was beset with "corruption and mafia-raj", to which the Sena has taken umbrage.

The BMC is ruled by the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance since the past two decades and the crucial civic elections are due after three months, in early 2017.