A retired naval officer named 'Madan Sharma' was beaten in Mumbai by Shiv Sena workers for forwarding a cartoon mocking Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Madan Sharma, in his complaint, said he had forwarded the cartoon to his residential society's WhatsApp group. He later received a call from one Kamlesh Kadam, who asked his name and address. In the afternoon, he was called outside the building and was attacked by a group of men.
The controversy went further after the Mumbai Police granted all the Shiv Sena workers bail without presenting them to court. Now, Sanjay Raut has finally responded to the controversy. Raut in an interview with India Today said that these types of reactions take place sometimes however, it should not take place. If our government has been formed then everyone should work patiently.
When we were in opposition the same things used to happen like today's opposition is doing. This attack on the officer is not a planned one, yes it is an issue of law and order but no-one was aware when the incident took place including the government. Law should be maintained in every state. We never denied that those people were not Shiv Sena workers. We acted swiftly and arrested the accused as soon as possible. Now we should stop politicizing that incident. We don't want those types of incidents take place in Maharashtra on a regular basis.
But it should not be forgotten that they provoked them first. They have a certain type of mindset.
On being asked about the cartoon which was forwarded by the victim, Raut said criticism is a fundamental right and the incident that took place was spontaneous. On being asked whether he regrets or not, Raut said that in UP goons intruded into a retd Army Officer house and physically assaulted them. Has anyone regretted that? Yes, we regret that this should never happen.
Raut added that let's talk about the cartoon, making PM Modi's cartoon has resulted in the job loss for the cartoonists. In West Bengal, a girl was jailed for a day for her cartoons, so the point being everyone works according to the law but we never gave the Shiv Sena workers order to physically assault the Navy Officer.