Mumbai/IBNS: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said Marathi should be respected but thuggery in the name of language won't be tolerated, in a stern message against the MNS workers' assault on a shopkeeper for not speaking in the regional language.

Speaking to the reporters, Fadnavis said, "Marathi should be respected but thuggery in the name of any language won't be tolerated. Police have filed an FIR and acted against the kind of incident that has happened recently.

"We respect Marathi but not at the cost of disrespecting any other language. Strict actions will be taken if someone takes law into their hands."

In a video which went viral on social media, some of the workers- identified as belonging to Raj Thackeray's MNS- were seen thrashing the 48-year-old shopkeeper, named Babulal Khimji Chaudhary, who struggled to respond to the onslaughts.

Reportedly, the workers questioned the shopkeeper over not speaking in Marathi. The shopkeeper tried to explain that he didn't know Marathi was compulsory and also he lacked knowledge in the language.

When the MNS workers asked the shopkeeper which state he was working in, the shopkeeper responded, "Maharashtra".

When the protesters asked about the language spoken in Maharashtra, the shopkeeper said, "All languages are spoken here."

The workers got angry at the shopkeeper's response and started slapping him one by one.

One of the men who slapped the shopkeeper defended their actions saying "it was his attitude that led us to slap him".

Speaking to NDTV, MNS worker Amol Patil said, "If he had spoken to us properly, he would not have been slapped. It was his attitude that led us to slap him. Of course we know many people don't know Marathi. But there is a decent way of replying when asked."

"Had he (shopkeeper) said, 'I will learn Marathi, maybe one of you can teach me', we would have been glad to help. It is all about how they behave with us when we ask them if they speak Marathi."

Patil, who had gone to Thane's Kashimira Police Station where the accused were summoned, said he was ready to go to jail for Marathi.