Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has backed a call for the removal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district but said that it would have to be done within the ambit of the law as the site is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, PTI reported on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader made the remark at an event on Saturday while responding to a statement by his party colleague and Satara MP Udayanraje Bhosale calling for the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb.

Bhosale is a descendant of the 17th-century Maratha ruler Shivaji, who is celebrated in Maharashtra as a symbol of resistance against Mughal rule.

“We all also want the same thing, but you need to do it within the framework of the law, because it is a protected site,” the news agency quoted Fadnavis as saying. “The site was put under ASI’s [Archaeological Survey of India] protection during the Congress regime some years back.”

The chief minister’s remarks came days after Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly session for remarks he made about Aurangzeb.

On March 3, Azmi said that he did not consider Aurangzeb to be a cruel ruler. “Wrong history is being shown,” the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar MLA told reporters. “Aurangzeb built many temples. I do not consider him a cruel ruler.”

This sparked a controversy, prompting Azmi to retract his statement a day later.

The Mumbai Police has filed a first information report against Azmi for his remarks on the basis of a complaint by Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske, who claimed that his comments had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by ignoring the Mughal ruler’s acts of oppression.