Mumbai Cong leaders meet top cop over Shivakumar's detention

A Mumbai Congress delegation met city police commissioner Sanjay Barve Wednesday to lodge a protest against the detention of Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar when he tried to meet rebel MLAs from his state at a hotel here.

Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora and another party leader, Naseem Khan, were also detained by the police.

"We told Barve that everybody has a constitutional right to protest. How can police stop someone from entering a public place? BJP leaders were allowed inside all hotels where the rebel MLAs were put up but not Congress leaders," said Congress leader Bhai Jagtap.

Jagtap, member of Maharashtra Legislative Council, also said the delegation told the commissioner that the police could have maintained security inside the hotel instead of "preventing us from going inside".

He also said, to a question, that Mumbai Congress leaders could not reach on time to support Shivakumar because none were aware about the time of of his arrival here.

"When we came to know about it, all of us rushed to the hotel. But we were caught up in traffic due to the rains, and we reached when Shivakumar and others had been taken away by the police," he said.

Shivakumar, Karnataka's Water Resources Minister and the Congress' troubleshooter, landed here early Wednesday and drove to the luxury hotel where rebel MLAs from his state are stationed.

Police prevented him from entering the hotel and his plea that he had booked a room in the hotel failed to elicit any response from police officials.

Deora later claimed Mumbai police were "forcibly deporting" the minister to Bengaluru. Jagtap said Shivakumar was taken to Mumbai airport by the police.

Twelve MLAs -- seven of the Congress, three of the JD(S) and two Independents -- are in the city since Saturday after resigning from the Karnataka Assembly and withdrawing support to the coalition government.