NCP MLA AMONG 4 ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF 2 SHIV SENA MEN

PUNE: Police booked 31 people and arrested four men, including a legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), early on Sunday after two local Shiv Sena leaders were murdered on Saturday evening.

NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap was arrested along with Sandeep Gunjal, Balasaheb Kotkar and Bhanudas Kotkar, police said. Gunjal is the prime suspect.

The Ahmednagar police booked the four under various sections of the Indian penal code (IPC) including Section 302 for murder.

Jagtap’s arrest infuriated NCP workers who stormed the office and of the superintendent of police and ransacked it. There is heavy police deployment to prevent a deterioration of law and order situation but the city continues to be tense.

“There is a law and order situation in the area and I cannot reveal many details to you,” said police inspector A Parmar of Kotwali police station who is investigating the double murder.

Shiv Sena deputy head in Kedgaon, Sanjay Kotkar and another leader Vasant Thube were killed after being shot and attacked with sharp weapons on Saturday evening.

The murder sparked off tension in the Shahunagar area of Kedgaon and shops and commercial establishments quickly downed their shutters.

Shiv Sena supporters staged a protest at the murder site for hours and stopped the police from removing the bodies before they eventually relented. Traffic on Pune-ahmednagar bypass was stopped for a while after the attack after Sena members held a rasta-roko protest on Saturday evening.

The double murder came on the heels of Congress leader Vishal Kotkar winning the civic bypoll for Ward 32 (Kedgaon) of the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation.

The bypoll was necessitated after the mayor former mayor Sandeep Kotkar, also Congress member, was convicted in a 2008 murder case.