MNS workers slap shopkeeper after he asks woman to speak to him in Marwadi instead of Marathi

The incident in which the shopkeeper allegedly asked the Marathi-speaking woman to use Marwadi language occurred on Monday evening at Khetwadi in Girgaon, when she visited his store, police said.

Mumbai: Some MNS activists slapped a shopkeeper at Girgaon in south Mumbai on Tuesday, a day after he allegedly asked a woman to speak to him in Marwadi instead of Marathi, citing the BJP's emergence to power in the state, police said.

The incident in which the shopkeeper allegedly asked the Marathi-speaking woman to use Marwadi language occurred on Monday evening at Khetwadi in Girgaon, when she visited his store, they said.

No complaint was lodged in this connection, the police said.

A video in which the shopkeeper is seen apologising to the woman in front of the activists of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), after being slapped by them, went viral on social media platforms.

In that video, the woman says in Marathi that the shopkeeper asked her to speak to her in Marwadi as the BJP has come to power in Maharashtra. She said she later went to a prominent BJP leader from her constituency to inform him about it, but he told her not to promote enmity between groups.

She then approached the local functionaries of the MNS in Malabar Hill area and narrated the incident, following which the shopkeeper was called to the party office, where he was slapped and asked to apologise, which he did.

The police said that the matter was resolved after he apologised to the woman as well as the Marathi-speaking community.