New Delhi (PTI) With the arrest of six sharpshooters of Chota Shakeel gang allegedly planning to kill the lawyer of Varun Gandhi, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi on Sunday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying she was concerned about her son's safety.

"It is with the deepest concern for my son's life and safety that I write to you today," she said in her letter in the wake of the arrest of the gang members.

29-year-old Mr. Varun, in a separate statement, said while he was not personally intimidated by such cowardly threats, strong precautions must be taken to defeat the desperate designs of extremist elements.

"The Home Ministry should respond with the urgency and responsibility that behoves those entrusted with the safety of a whole nation," he said, claiming that it was a plot against his life by dangerous underworld criminals.

Delhi Police claimed on Saturday that the gang had come to the capital to allegedly kill the lawyer of Mr. Varun, whose case challenging the UP government's slapping of National Security Act against him for provocative speech was contested by a battery of lawyers, including Mukul Rohtangi and Sidharth Luthra.

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms. Maneka, Mr. Varun's mother and BJP MP, said that they should be kept informed of such issues so that "we can protect ourselves".

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