Mumbai, Sept. 1 :    Mumbai, Sept. 1:  The battle between industrialist Vijaypat Singhania and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is escalating into a war with the Sena deciding to sue Singhania's Thane hospital, its cadres had vandalised last Sunday for the 'negligence' death of its leader Anand Dighe. As Singhania, chairman of the Raymonds Group, turned up the heat on Thackeray and sought a public apology from the leader for the Sena-sponsored vandalism, the party started consulting lawyers and doctors to make a case of negligence against doctors who had attended Dighe. Doctors at Thane's Sunitidevi Singhania Hospital said Dighe had died of a heart attack shortly after they operated on his legs fractured in a road accident. They denied any negligence on their part and blamed the death on his 'poor' heart condition. But Sena leaders, preparing to sue the hospital, said the doctors should not have operated on Dighe when he had a heart problem. They accused the hospital authorities of not taking enough precautions beforehand. Angered by the news of Dighe's death, who was Sena's district president and popular among the workers, Shiv Sainiks rampaged through the two-storied hospital on the Raymonds compound in Thane, trashing its furniture and torching ambulances and cars in the parking lot. Sena activists broke into a Raymonds showroom and looted it. They stoned and damaged cars, buses and autorickshaws across the neighbouring industrial city, before shutting down the district last Monday in a strike. Several reporters and photographers covering the mayhem were assaulted. Local residents and newsmen accused police officers of standing by as Sena supporters rampaged through the city. Police said they were too few to deal with the mob because of deployment for the ongoing Ganapati puja. An upset Singhania spoke out against the vandalism on a visit to the hospital last Monday and called for a public apology from Thackeray. Unlike several industrialists who had silently put up with the Sena's arm-twisting in the past, the Raymonds boss did not mince words and asked the Sena to pay for the damage to the hospital running into several crores. Taken aback by the 'temerity' of the industrialist, the party shot back. While the Sena chief preferred to keep quiet, his son Uddhav Thackeray railed against Singhania for publicly castigating the party. He said the Sena chief did not approve of the violence and he himself had called up the industrialist to apologise. Uddhav refused to own up for the violence, blaming it on 'spontaneous' reaction of the Sena supporters. He accused the industrialist of 'opening' the wounds through his remarks when many Sainiks felt that the hospital had neglected Dighe. Singhania stuck to his guns, despite veiled warnings from the Sena leadership. He met chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and lodged a strong protest against the role of the police. While deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is also home minister, backed the Thane police, saying they were overstretched that day because of Ganapati puja, the government ordered an inquiry into the incident. 'Vijaypat Singhania did the wrong things by asking Bal Thackeray to apologise,' Thane mayor Ramesh Vaitay, a Sena leader, said. 'We are ready to apologise if the industrialist asks us to do so. But there is no question of Balasaheb apologising.' As Singhania remained insistent, Sena leader Raj Thackeray, nephew of the party chief, upped the ante. 'We are ready to pay for the damage to the hospital as Singhania demanded provided the hospital gives us our leader Dighe back.' A source in the Raymonds House said they were ready to face any case, but would not easily let off the guilty.