[Mumbai: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Anil Parab with party supporters raises slogans during a protest outside the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) office at Bandra, in Mumbai, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. ( /PTI]
Mumbai, Jan 31 : Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab, whose alleged "illegal" office here was razed, on Tuesday challenged Bharatiya Janata Party's ex-MP Kirit Somaiya to prove his charges that the premises were unauthorised.
Addressing the media at the MHADA Colony in Bandra east, Parab said the structure was demolished by the society members on Monday after MHADA last week refused permission to regularise it.
Dismissing Somaiya's claims, he hit back to accuse the BJP leader of "working against the interests of the poor Marathi people" especially since the MHDA complex is now going for a redevelopment.
"By targeting me like this, Somaiya - who has taken a 'supari' (contract) from the builders - will try to misuse the notice and pressurize the society members here against asking for additional area (of the flats) in the redevelopment project," claimed Parab.
Along with some society members, Parab emphatically said that after the MHADA declined permission to regularise the office due to Somaiya's coercion, the society on its own flattened the office.
Somaiya - who first raised the issue before the Lokayukta in September 2021 - claimed that the MHADA brought the axe on Parab's "illegal office", which the Society and the Sena (UBT) leader rejected.
Parab, who was a minister then, said that he had informed MHADA of having nothing to do with the land or the structure or the demolition orders then, and Somaiya's false allegations were intended to discredit him.
The society members said that they had asked Parab to base his office here for the benefit of the people in the MHADA complex to which he had agreed.
"Fake news is being spread on this issue. I challenge Somaiya to come and view the demolished office and we shall give him a proper areception'," declared Parab.
As Somaiya drove to the venue, Mumbai Police stopped his vehicle near Bandra Kurla Complex ostensibly to prevent any law and order issue.
/IANS