Kunal Kamra row: Man who vandalised Mumbai studio a key Shinde Sena youth face with friends in film world

Starting as a Yuva Sena worker, Kanal was named its first district president in Mumbai and rose through the ranks to become its committee member and an aide of Aaditya.

Kanal quit the Sena (UBT) in July 2023, expressing his resentment over the functioning of Aaditya, who is still the Yuva Sena chief, and switched to the Shinde Sena. He has since been a member of the core committee of the Shinde’s Yuva Sena.

Kanal, who owns a restaurant in Bandra, is considered close to several celebrities in the Mumbai film and entertainment industry as well as some prominent sportspersons. He has been seen distributing food kits along with film star Salman Khan.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Kanal runs a few NGOs, including “I Love Mumbai”, and has been involved in several corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

He was appointed a trustee of Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST), the temple trust in Shirdi. He was also named a member of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s education committee in 2017.

In 2022, the Income Tax department had raided Kanal’s premises in Mumbai in connection with an alleged hawala racket involving Sena leader Yashwant Jadhav.

Kanal had also filed a defamation case against BJP MLA and now minister Nitesh Rane after the latter had tweeted to allege his involvement in the deaths of Disha Salian and Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020. In his response to Nitesh, Kanal had then tweeted: “Social media is a responsible platform. I won’t bow down to the irresponsible online bullying from anyone. Taking the legal recourse as my lawyer…will be serving the defamation notice to Mr Rane on his unwarranted allegations.”

On Monday, the Mumbai police arrested Kanal and several other Sena workers for ransacking the Habitat studio in a Mumbai hotel where Kunal Kamra’s show was recorded.