Two Shiv Sena leaders booked for Pune violence

PUNE - Two days after a Shiv Sena-called shutdown evoked some violence and a partial response in this Maharashtra city, a compliant was Thursday lodged against two of the party’s leaders for hatching a conspiracy to create law and order problems, police said.

Milind Narvekar, personal assistant of Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, and legislative council member Neelam Gorhe have been named in the first information report (FIR) registered against them.

The shutdown was Tuesday called to protest the removal of a statue of Dadoji Konddev, Shivaji’s teacher. Party activists had torched 13 buses and disrupted traffic on the Mumbai-Pune highway. Some activists were also detained in Lonavala for stopping two trains.

Police booked Narvekar and Gorhe after tapping their phone conversations. “The tapped conversation showed that the two had spoken about creating a law and order problem in the city Tuesday,” Joint Commissioner of Police Ashok Dhivre said.

Both Narvekar and Gorhe remained unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.

Last week, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-controlled Pune Municipal Corporation passed a resolution to remove Konddevs statue from the historical Lal Mahal, which is the memorial to Shivaji’s mother Jijabai.

The statue was removed at 2 a.m. Monday. Angry Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena corporators later ransacked the civic hall.