Ambi alleged that Gaikwad threatened to “cut his tongue” and “enter his house and assault him” and also told him, “You too will meet Pansare.”

Pansare was shot dead while he was on a morning walk in Kolhapur in 2015.

Ambi said he clarified during the call that he was not the book’s author but only its publisher, and urged the MLA to read it before forming an opinion.

“I kept telling him to read the book first and understand its context, but he was not interested,” Ambi said, adding that he would file a complaint on Thursday at the Rajarampuri police station in Kolhapur.

The plice said they have received no complaint yet.

The audio clip has been widely shared on social media but could not be independently verified.

Gaikwad confirmed that he had called the publisher but said the clip had been “edited and distorted”. He said he had read the book and believed it distorted history. He also objected to what he described as an informal or disrespectful reference to Shivaji Maharaj.

“I have done nothing wrong… such people deserve to be abused,” he said, adding that he reacted after being provoked during the conversation.

Sources said Gaikwad had called Ambi under the impression that he was the book’s author and that the exchange turned heated after the publisher clarified otherwise.

Reacting to the incident, Medha Pansare, daughter of the late Pansare, said threats cannot counter ideas. “You cannot kill an idea. Read the book first, then comment,” she said in Kolhapur, adding that legal options were being explored.

Lakhs of copies of the book have been printed and read across Maharashtra, Medha said, adding that similar objections had been raised earlier but Pansare had refused to change the title despite receiving threats.

Gaikwad has been embroiled in controversies in the past, inlcuding over a video that showed him assaulting a MLA canteen staffer in Mumbai and for making provocative remarks