BJP MLA fires on ally leader at thana, opposition attacks Maharashtra government

KALYAN: BJP's

Kalyan East MLA Ganpat Gaikwad

, who fired on Shiv Sena Kalyan unit chief Mahesh Gaikwad inside the senior inspector's cabin in Ulhasnagar's Hill Line police station late Friday, was arrested on Saturday even as the shooting triggered a political controversy with the governing Mahayuti alliance under attack from opposition MVA for the violent feud between functionaries of BJP and the CM Eknath Shinde-led Sena.

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, also the home minister, said he has asked the DGP to conduct an inquiry and submit a report. "The Kalyan incident is serious. Everyone is equal before the law," Fadnavis said.
Sena's Mahesh Gaikwad is critical and Sena functionary Rahul Patil, who was also shot at, is stable, doctors said.
Ganpat Gaikwad's son Vaibhav and four other BJP workers have also been booked in the case. Two BJP workers have been arrested, while the hunt is on for three others. All six accused have been booked for attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and rioting and under the Arms Act.

The BJP MLA and two arrested workers were remanded to 12 days of police custody.
The BJP MLA said he resorted to firing because his son was being beaten up by the Sena man's group at the station. ACP Dattatreya Shinde said CCTV footage showed the BJP MLA suddenly getting up when the two Sainiks were seated and firing at them.
Gaikwad was produced before judge A A Nikam of Ulhasnagar court following the judge rejecting a police request to produce him via video-conferencing. CM Shinde on the other hand visited the hospital to check on the injured Sena functionaries, and Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde, the CM's son, spent all of Friday night in hospital with the two injured Sainiks.

The two Gaikwads - Ganpat and Mahesh - have been engaged in a longstanding political fight and are also locked in a land dispute.
Police said the MLA's son Vaibhav had gone to the station on Friday night to lodge a complaint against Mahesh and others for allegedly attempting to trespass into the MLA's property in Kalyan East. After a while, Sainiks Mahesh Gaikwad, Rahul Patil and Chainu Jadhav also reached the station along with their supporters to file a complaint against the BJP MLA regarding the same plot, saying the MLA had tried to forcefully capture the land belonging to a ST family.