Maharashtra political crisis: Shiv Sena MLA returns to Nagpur, claims he was ‘kidnapped,’ assaulted by Gujarat cops

In a dramatic turn of events amid the unfolding political turmoil in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena MLA Nitin Deshmukh reached Nagpur today and claimed that he had escaped from the ‘rebel’ camp in Gujarat after being ‘kidnapped.’ Expressing his support for Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deshmukh made sweeping allegations against the police force of BJP-ruled Gujarat, saying that he was forcibly taken to a hospital and attempts were made to perform surgery on him.

“I escaped and was standing on the road at around 3 in the morning trying to flee by hitching a ride, when around 100-150 cops came and took me to a hospital. They pretended that I had a heart attack and tried to conduct some surgical procedure on my body,” he said, while refuting earlier media reports of him suffering a heart-attack.

This development comes a day after his wife Pranjali Deshmukh filed a missing complaint at the Civil Lines police station in Akola, stating that she was unable to get in touch with her husband since late Monday evening.

In her complaint, Pranjali said that ever since she got off a phone call with her husband at 7 pm on June 20, she had not heard back from him, neither could she get in touch with him as his phone had been switched off, while adding that her husband’s life was at risk.

Earlier, Sena MP Sanjay Raut had claimed that Deshmukh and another legislator were allegedly beaten up.

Right now, Shinde and other ‘rebel’ MLAs are camping in Assam at Guwahati’s Radisson Blu. While claiming the support of 46 legislators, Shinde told news agency ANI, “We have 46 MLAs with us, including 6-7 Independent MLAs. Rest of them are Shiv Sena MLAs. This number will rise in the time to come. As of now we have neither received any proposal from BJP nor are we holding any talks with them.”