Man tries to self-immolate near Mantralaya, detained

MUMBAI: A man tried to self-immolate by pouring kerosene in front of the Mantralaya's main gate in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The man, identified as Ganesh Pawar of Rahuri in Ahmednagar, was demanding the arrest of chief of right-wing group 'Shivpratishthan Hindustan,' Sambhaji Bhide, who has been accused of instigation the Koregaon-Bhima violence in January this year.

Police immediately took Ganesh Pawar in custody and sent him to the Marine Drive police station. According to primary information, Ganesh is member of an organisation named 'Republican Sena'.

"The incident took place around 1.30pm. The Mantralaya security saw him and rushed to stop him," said a security official. Pawar had come to meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with his demand that Bhide must be arrested.

However, the state government has already given a clean chit to Bhide saying that according to police investigations Bhide was not near the incident site.

Mantralaya has been a location of suicides and suicide bids in the past few months. Two people who committed suicide inside Mantralaya have died. An 84-year-old farmer from Dhule district consumed poison to protest against the inadequate compensation for his land and died. Similary Harshal Raote, a murder convict jumped from the fifth floor inside Mantralaya and died. After being criticised for the rising number of suicides, the state government has installed safety nets building’s second floor-level.