Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said NCP leader Ajit Pawar should apologise

A day after senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said it was a "mistake" to arrest late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in 2000, Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday sought his apology over the arrest.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Raut, who is Sena's MP and the party's chief whip in parliament, said, "You took so many years to realise that it was a mistake to arrest Balasaheb Thackeray. If your tears are real, you should apologise over his arrest."

Ajit Pawar had on Friday said that some senior NCP leaders had insisted on the arrest of Balasaheb Thackeray in 2000, despite opposition from some others leaders like himself. "It was a mistake," he had said.

Mr Thackeray was arrested during the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra for allegedly inciting social trouble through the Sena's mouthpiece "Saamana". Mr Thackeray's alleged inflammatory writings were published in "Saamana" after the Babri mosque was demolished in 1992, followed by the serial blasts in Mumbai that killed over 300 people.

Recently, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had also recalled the arrest of his father and said Maharashtra doesn't appreciate politics of "revenge and vengeance".

"My father was not arrested for corruption or any irregularity but he was held for protecting Hindus in Mumbai and Maharashtra during the 1992-93 riots," he had said while addressing Sena workers in Mumbai.