“Those were the days of the underworld. Later, everybody fled the country. Now there is nothing like that,” the ShivSena’s leader said
Mumbai: Yesterday ShivSena leader Sanjay Raut claimed that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would come to Mumbai to meet yesteryear don Karim Lala, causing much embarrassment to his new Maharashtra ally, but on Thursday it seems that the ShivSena leader seemed to backtrack from his remarks.
Raut reminding past days of the underworld in Mumbai, who was earlier a journalist, on Wednesday he said gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, and Sharad Shetty used to have control over the metropolis and adjoining areas.
These people used to decide who will be the police commissioner, who will sit in ‘Mantralaya’ (secretariat), Raut said in an interview with a media group during its award function.
Sanjay Raut claimed “When Haji Mastan used to come to ‘Mantralaya’, the entire ‘Mantralaya‘ would come down to see him. late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used to come to meet Karim Lala in Pydhonie in south Mumbai,” whose party formed a coalition government with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra in 2019.
Karim Lala, who operated liquor dens, gambling and extortion rackets in Mumbai from the 1960s to 1980s, died in 2002. “Those were the days of the underworld. Later, everybody fled the country. Now there is nothing like that,” the ShivSena’s leader said.
However, the claim irked the Congress, with party leader Milind Deora saying Indira Gandhi was “a true patriot who never compromised on India’s national security”. He also demanded that Raut withdraw his “ill-informed remarks”.
On Thursday Raut sought to clarify his statement, saying he had always stood up for Indira Gandhi when she was attacked by people.
“The respect that I have always shown towards Indira Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, and the Gandhi family, despite being in opposition, nobody has done it. Whenever people have targeted Indira Gandhi, I have stood up for her.”
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