Governor Summoned Uddhav Thackeray Advisor On Kangana Ranaut Row: Report

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari expressed displeasure over the Mumbai civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's move to demolish the alleged "illegal alterations" at the office of actor Kangana Ranaut, who has been attacking the state government over Sushant Singh Rajput's death and has triggered a controversy with her comparison of the city with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), news agency PTI reported today.

The Governor summoned Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's principal advisor Ajoy Mehta on Wednesday, when the demolition was being carried out, and conveyed his displeasure, a source was quoted as saying by the new agency.

Using a bulldozer and excavators, a BMC team demolished the alterations allegedly made without the civic body's approval at her Bandra office on Wednesday.

The BMC had listed 14 "violations" at her office, which included a toilet apparently built in space marked for a kitchen and an office set up in an area meant for a toilet.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had told NDTV that she had failed to produce documents "within 24 hours".

But the BMC move raised questions like whether the actor had been given enough time, since she had been out of Mumbai for months, and why no action was taken earlier.

Ms Ranaut, who had dared the Shiv Sena to stop her from coming to Mumbai on September 9 after bitter exchanges with the ruling party leaders over her PoK remark, had attacked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

"Uddhav Thackeray, tujhe kya lagta hai? (what do you think?) That you colluded along with the film mafia, demolished my home and took revenge on me? My home was demolished today, your arrogance will crumble tomorrow," she had said.

The Bombay High Court, after the actor's petition on Wednesday, ordered to stop the demolition of her office but till then considerable damage had been done to the property. The court today deferred the hearing in the case to September 22.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, a key ally of Mr Thackeray, had also expressed displeasure at the timing of the move. "Illegal constructions not a new thing in Mumbai. But acting upon it at the backdrop of the ongoing controversy, gives rise to questions. But BMC has their own reasons and rules and they acted as per them," he had told reporters.

Ms Ranaut, a vocal supporter of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said she didn't feel safe in Mumbai under the Sena-Congress-NCP combine rule. She later responded to Sena MP Sanjay Raut's barb that she shouldn't come to the city by making the controversial comment: "Why does Mumbai feel like PoK?"

Several Sena leaders, including Mr Raut, had made objectionable remarks against Ms Ranaut.

With inputs from PTI