New Delhi, July 5 (Inditop.com) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi Sunday alleged that members of underworld mobster Chhota Shakeel’s gang were plotting to kill him while his mother and party leader Maneka Gandhi complained to the prime minister that the home ministry was treating the threats to his life casually.
A day after six sharpshooters of Chhota Shakeel – one of India’s most wanted gangsters – were arrested from various parts of the capital, Varun Gandhi urged Home Minister P. Chidambaram to take urgent action in the matter.
The MP from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh said in a statement: “The plot against my life by dangerous underworld criminals apprehended yesterday by Delhi Police exemplifies exactly the kind of terror and violence against which I stand and have been warning against.”
Delhi Police had claimed the sharpshooters were targetting “some VVIPs”.
Maneka Gandhi, MP from Aonla in Uttar Pradesh, wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that the home minister was taking the “threats” to her son’s life lightly.
“The home ministry has taken these threats very casually – it is as if you want Varun Gandhi to be killed,” she charged.
“The home minister told me he cannot protect everyone in this country,” Maneka Gandhi said.
Meanwhile, an Intelligence Bureau source said the agency was considering providing security to Varun Gandhi in the wake of the new developments.
Varun Gandhi, the grandson of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi and son of late Sanjay Gandhi, in his statement said: “This is the second time in recent months that such a conspiracy has been uncovered.”
“The home ministry should respond with the urgency and responsibility that behoves those entrusted with the safety of a whole nation. May it not later be said that petty political considerations interfered with the course of official duty.”
Varun Gandhi kicked up a major controversy with his reported hate speeches against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and was even arrested for it under the stringent National Security Act. The Supreme Court later set him free on bail.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told a television channel that Maneka Gandhi had written to the prime minister that it was necessary to provide protection to Varun Gandhi.
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