Pune: Five held after petrol bomb thrown at office of BJP MLA's brother

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The Pimpri Chinchwad police has arrested three men and detained two minors in connection with the hurling of a petrol bomb at the office of Shankar Jagtap, brother of Chinchwad MLA Laxman Jagtap, an official said on Thursday.

Three motorbike-borne men had hurled two bottle-based petrol bombs at Jagtap's office in Pimple Gurav area near here on Tuesday. The bombs exploded but no one was injured.

Pradyum Bhosale (23), one of the accused, was apparently nursing a grudge after Jagtap refused to take part in his birthday celebration, police said.
"Bhosale had his birthday last month. He had gone to Jagtap's office to get a cake cut in his presence, but Jagtap did not entertain him which hurt Bhosale," said Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Krishna Prakash.

Bhosale then allegedly conspired with other accused including Tanmay Madne (20) who put together 'petrol bombs' and they hurled them at Jagtap's office.
Prakash said two more suspects were at large. The main motive seemed to be to create fear, the commissioner said.

"We are still verifying if they also planned to extort money from someone influential by threatening him that they would implicate him if caught by police, stating that they hurled bombs at his behest," said Prakash. The accused were booked under relevant sections of the IPC and Explosives Act, he added.

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