Union Minister Narayan Rane was arrested by the Maharashtra police on Tuesday for allegedly threatening to slap Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
He was granted bail hours later after he cited his health and argued that he was arrested without proper notice on "politically motivated" charges.
Narayan Rane is the first Union Minister to be arrested in 20 years.. The arrest, which has become a flashpoint between Sena and BJP, came after the Bombay High Court refused to quash three FIRs registered against him.
The three FIRs have been registered in Raigad, Pune, and Nashik districts.
During his speech on Monday evening at a hall in Mahad city in Raigad, Rane said, “It is shameful that the chief minister does not know the year of independence. He leaned back to enquire about the count of years of independence during his speech. Had I been there, I would have given (him) a tight slap.”
Amid protests across Maharashtra over Narayan Rane’s remarks on ‘slapping chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’, former CM Devendra Fadnavis said that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not support Union minister’s comment.
The statement came after activists of the Shiv Sena’s youth wing and the BJP clashed with each other near Rane’s residence in Mumbai.