"Afzal Khan, Kans": Sena's Sanjay Raut On Warpath After Minister's Arrest

In a tweet, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut cited Afzal Khan, the rival of Maharashtra's hugely venerated figure Chhatrapati Shivaji. In the same tweet, he added Kansa and Ravana, the arch villains of mythology, with a parting shot, "This is Hinduism".

The Shiv Sena today ripped into the BJP-led Central government over the arrest of a second minister of the Maharashtra government, saying they got stabbed in the back by forces who could not take them on in a fair fight. In a tweet, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut cited Afzal Khan, the rival of Maharashtra's hugely venerated figure Chhatrapati Shivaji. In the same tweet, he added Kansa and Ravana, the arch villains of mythology, with a parting shot, "This is Hinduism".   

The state's minority development minister Nawab Malik was arrested today in connection with a money laundering case linked to the fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim -- four months after the arrest of Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case.

The arrest comes after his clash with Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede, who was in charge of the drugs-on-cruise case, in which megastar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was also arrested.

Mr Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested in a drugs case by the NCB's Mumbai unit led by Mr Wankhede last year and the officer had accused the minister of playing retaliatory politics.