Kangana wants compensation for damage to her Mumbai office: Athawale

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale has said actor Kangana Ranaut feels insulted and wants compensation after her Mumbai property was partially demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over alleged illegal construction.

“Met actor Kangana Ranaut and talked with her for an hour. She told me she felt insulted. The office that she got constructed in January has been damaged. I told her she has nothing to fear in Mumbai… My party (RPI) is with her,” he told reporters on Thursday (September 10).

“I told her that the BMC has done grave injustice to her and has acted with vengeance,” Athawale told a news channel.

Using a bulldozer, a civic body team demolished the alterations allegedly made by her without the BMC approval at her office on Wednesday. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had said she had failed to produce papers “within 24 hours”.

The Bombay High Court, after the actor’s petition on Wednesday, ordered a stay of the demolition of her office and deferred the hearing to September 22.

Meanwhile, a BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh, Nand Kishore Gurjar, has written to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking upgrading Ranaut’s security to Z plus and dismissal of the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government in Maharashtra for allegedly “illegally” demolishing Ranaut’s office in Mumbai.

The actor was provided Y-plus category security cover by Centre on recommendation of Himachal Pradesh government after Ranaut, who is from Mandi in the hill state, said she had been threatened by Shiv Sena of physical harm when she returned to the country’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Claiming there was a serious threat to the actor’s life, the BJP MLA from Loni assembly segment of Ghaziabad district said Ranaut’s office was demolished on the instructions of mafia don Dawood Ibrahim. The MLA, however, did not substantiate his allegation.

The BMC action came amid a bitter exchange between the ruling Shiv Sena leaders and the actor, who has been critical of the state government’s handling of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut last week asked the actor to not visit Mumbai following Ranaut’s remark that “Mumbai felt like PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir).”

Another Sena leader has filed a case against the actor for using foul language against CM Uddhav Thackeray.