MUMBAI, FEB 13: Leader of the Opposition Chhagan Bhujbal today charged Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's nephew, Raj Thackeray with extortion vis-a-vis several film producers, distributors and theatre owners in the metropolis.He said that sums between Rs 25,000 to Rs one crore were being demanded from distributors and theatre owners like Ramesh Sippy, Harish Thadani, Shroff and Choksi. ``While Gulshan Rai and A G Vartak refused, some other people have ended up giving the money,'' Bhujbal told a press conference today.
He said the ``Gopi-Raj'' duo had started on this alleged ``extortion'' to make up for the cost of six helicopters that had been hired by the Sena-BJP alliance for Uddhav, Raj and Bal Thackeray, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Munde and BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan for their campaign tours.
``The inducement is that the one rupee service charge given by the government on the entertainment tax last year would be withdrawn if they do not cough upthe cash. If they do, they will be given an additional rupee in the next budget,'' said Bhujbal.
He also said that the son of ``a high-ranking minister in the Sena-BJP government'' was a partner of slain builder Manish Shah. Shah had recently picked up the tab for the wedding of another State minister's daughter.
Criticising Thackeray for aping Sonia Gandhi's style at his public meetings, he said, ``T Balu has now become a tamasha artiste. He is the Balu of the Kalu-Balu group (a famous tamasha group).''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
