In the backdrop of the arrest of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh by the Enforcement Directorate and attachment of assets worth Rs 1,000 crore allegedly linked to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday took action. BJP, alleged that the action against its leaders was politically motivated and was aimed at tarnishing the image of the government.
“The whole action is politically motivated. The aim is to intimidate the leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi,” said cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik.
Malik said that Ajit Pawar has nothing to do with the properties attached by the Income Tax Department and the motive behind this action is to defame him. “It is being said that the IT department attached properties belonging to Ajit Pawar. But there is no truth in this. The property belongs to everyone and they say it belongs to Ajit Pawar. This is being done to defame them.”
Malik claimed that the central government should come clean and probe the whereabouts of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who had accused Deshmukh of corruption.
NS Shiv Sena, meanwhile, said that the central government was targeting MVA leaders and was instrumental in allowing Param Bir Singh to disappear.
“Deshmukh’s arrest is unfortunate and also against the principle of justice. The man who has leveled charges against them has run away or should I say he was made to run away. An officer of his rank can leave the country only with the active connivance of central agencies. He has disappeared with the help of central agencies,” said Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut.
He said Deshmukh’s arrest was part of a larger conspiracy by the BJP, still shaken by its defeat in Maharashtra, to target MVA leaders and destabilize the government.
Congress also said that action against MVA leaders is part of BJP’s politics of vendetta. Anil Deshmukh’s arrest is unfortunate. The arrest of the accuser Parambir Singh is yet to come, but Anil Deshmukh, who is cooperating with the agencies, has been arrested. State Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said, this is politics of vengeance.
Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar’s family said that they were not aware of the provisional attachment of Income Tax Department assets. A close aide of Ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar said, “The department has not issued any notice to the Pawar family to attach the property.” “We only saw news on TV. We have not been informed about it by the department.”
NCP spokesperson Ankush Kakade also said, “We are not aware of it.”
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar, who were in Baramati to inaugurate an incubation and innovation center and scientific research institute set up under the Agricultural Development Trust of Baramati, maintained a studied silence on the incidents unfolding in the last 24 years. hours.
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