Minister’s brother held for assault

The police said Bharat and another accused, Harish R Sharma, were drunk. Two bottles of a foreign brand of gin and one bottle of beer were found in the Toyota Qualis car in which they had gone to Paldi. The weapon used for threatening Shah was, however, taken away by the trio who fled.

Those arrested have been booked under Sections 307, 147, 148, 149, 452, 120 (b)(1) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 25 B-A of the Arms Act and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act. "Proceedings will also be carried out against them for being drunk," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) S S Trivedi.

Immediately after the incident, Purshottam Solanki, State BJP general secretary Gordhan Zadaphia and several BJP workers reached the Ellisbridge police station, where the police had taken the accused after their arrest.

Bharat Solanki, along with Namdeo Gaekwad, Harish R Sharma (both from Mumbai), Rafiq Sultanbhai and Harshad Makwana (both from Bhavnagar), and three others had gone to the Skynet office ostensibly to hand over some equipment. "Bharatbhai and his men picked up a fight with Samirbhai and then beat him up," said a Skynet staffer who was witness to the incident.

One of the three unidentified men whipped out a revolver and aimed it at Samir Shah with "the intention to kill", said Ellisbridge Senior Police Inspector Chandrakant Vora. Samir was beaten black and blue in the presence of Skynet managers Ajay Singh and Jailesh Modi.

In the meantime, someone from the Skynet staff informed the police who arrived promptly and arrested five persons. The other three accused, still unidentified, managed to flee in spite of the police presence. The revolver was with one of them," said Trivedi.

The cable war had intensified in the last fortnight, with InCablenet and Skynet lodging complaints of attacks on their offices, thefts and threats to their staff against each other. So far, InCablenet seemed to have the having upper hand: it has won over all Skynet operators of Paldi area, except Samir Shah.

Skynet has alleged that InCablenet has the backing of influential people in the government, who have a stake in company. Among those named in Skynet complaints, besides Bharat Solanki, are Ashish Desai, who is brother of Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel’s son-in-law Mayur Desai, and Kiran Shah, brother of Transport Minister Bimal Shah.

Purshottam Solnaki, who hails from Bhavnagar, has a controversial past. He is a former TADA detainee and the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the Bombay riots, had passed strictures against him. Bharat Solanki lives in Mumbai.

Heera Solanki, their third brother, is the MLA from Lathi. The Solankis also rule the roost in the cable TV business in Bhavnagar.