Mumbai, Jan 28 (IANS) More than 50 angry Shiv Sena activists Saturday afternoon stormed into the Times Of India building here and damaged furniture and fittings in the reception areas of the newspaper office.

They were protesting against a report published in Maharashtra Times, the Marathi language daily of the ToI Group, allegedly speculating that party MP from Amravati, Anandrao Adsul, was planning to defect to the Nationalist Congress Party.

Adsul and his son, legislator Abhijit, as well as another party MP and Saamna (the Shiv Sena mouthpiece) editor Sanjay Raut, indirectly supported the attack on grounds that the activists were provoked in view of baseless and unconfirmed reports published by the Maharashtra Times.

Later, Abhijit Adsul attempted to shirk responsibility claiming that the attackers did not belong to the party and could have been ordinary people.

Police were summoned and they managed to gain control over the situation. Around a dozen of the attackers were detained, ToI officials said.