With Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections just a few months away, politicians from various parties voiced their stand for and against comedian Kapil Sharma after he accused officials of the Corporation of taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to set up his office.
Congress and NCP attacked Shiv Sena and BJP, while the MNS film cell chief Ameya Khopkar threatened to stop Sharma from shooting.
Accusing Kapil Sharma of being a “liar”, MNS general secretary Shalini Thackeray on Friday said that Kapil Sharma had added illegal storeys to his Andheri bungalow and destroyed mangroves.
The illegal horizontal extension of Kapil’s ground-plus-one storey row house at SV Patel Nagar in Andheri was demolished on 4 August after he failed to respond to a 24 hour notice issued to him on 16 July asking him to pull down the extension, reported K-West ward assistant municipal commissioner, Parag Masurkar.
Asking the actor to furnish evidence about the allegations, MNS film cell chief Ameya Khopkar threatened to stop Sharma from shooting.
Saying there must be some ground on the comedian’s accusations against BMC, Congress came out in support of Kapil Sharma and even called the municipal body “Bhrastachar (corruption) Municipal Corporation”.
Calling BMC, the “most corrupt municipality in the world”, President of Mumbai Congress Committee Sanjay Nirupam lashed out on Twitter against BMC and various political parties accusing the actor.
The Shiv Sena who runs the BMC in an alliance with the BJP, lashed out at Kapil Sharma after his bribe allegations. They said that since it was the comedian who was carrying out the illegal construction, Kapil should be punished before they checked if he was asked for a bribe or not.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut described Sharma as an ‘outsider’, who just wants to damage Mumbai’s reputation.
BJP legislator Ram Kadam has allegedly filed a complaint against Sharma with the Mumbai police’s cyber cell for not reporting about the bribery demand earlier.
BJP MP Kirit Somaiya appeared to take a dig at Shiv Sena.
As Sharma’s tweet went viral, BMC asked him to lodge a formal complaint and name the officer who demanded bribe from him. This was followed by a promise of action from none other than Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who took to Twitter to reassure Sharma.
(With inputs from The Times of India Times, Mumbai Mirror and ANI.)
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