MUMBAI/ GURGAON: Diminutive Sonia Doohan (28) looks like an unlikely heroine, but the NCP national students wing president was entrusted with the “rescue operation” of four MLAs “taken” to a Gurgaon five-star hotel on Saturday.
MLAs Daulat Daroda (Shahapur), Narhari Zirwal (Dindori), Nitin Pawar (Kalwan) and Anil Patil (Amalner) had been “missing” since the day Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Maharashtra deputy chief minister.
“Sharad Pawarsaheb received a message from one of them saying they were being held against their will,” said Doohan who was a student of Kurukshetra University.
“We found 150 people were guarding the hotel. We booked a room in the hotel and formed two teams of 100 people each to get them out,” she said. “It was a little scary as we feared there could be violence,” she said.
Following this dramatic “rescue”, the NCP has claimed that 51 of its 54 legislators are back with the Sharad Pawar-led party.
NCP workers distracted guards for operation
Except Zirwal, who is unwell and has stayed on in Delhi, the other three are back in Mumbai. Nitin Pawar managed to get out by Sunday evening after NCP party workers distracted the guards. Doohan said they managed to get the rest out when the guards outside the hotel took a dinner break at 10.30pm on Sunday. “We got them to the airport and took a flight at 2.40am,” she said.
Sources said the MLAs were taken by BJP workers for lunch on Sunday afternoon to Kingdom of Dreams and their movements were restricted and monitored. “After establishing contact, we created a safety passage late on Sunday night and managed to rescue three of the MLAs through the gate meant for the hotel staff and took them to the airport. Zirwal could not be rescued though, and we had to launch a similar operation for him around 4am on Monday. There were some minor scuffles with BJP workers who had positioned themselves there along with some government officials in civil dress. There was misuse of official machinery in the entire episode by the BJP government,” alleged NCP youth president Dheeraj Sharma.
Terming the allegation “imaginary”, BJPs Gurgaon district president Bhupinder Chauhan said, “How can anyone hold one hostage in a hotel? All these claims are imaginary and nobody from BJP had any role to play in whatever took place at the hotel.”
Meanwhile, Patil said he had not gone missing or was abducted. “When we Read More – Source
