Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the Maharashtra government will definitely probe the authenticity of a video footage submitted by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis, who has alleged that the ruling alliance is hatching conspiracies against its political opponents.
Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Pawar also said his name was being mentioned “directly/indirectly” in connection with the alleged conspiracy, but he was nowhere related to it.
Fadnavis on Tuesday submitted a pen drive containing video recordings to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, saying the footage showed how conspiracies were hatched by police and members of the ruling MVA to frame BJP leaders, including himself and Girish Mahajan, in false cases.
Pawar laughed at the suggestion that he wanted to finish Fadnavis and BJP leader Girish Mahajan politically.
“So, it seems there is also some comic information in it (the material submitted by Fadnavis). One cannot get finished like this," he said.
"If it is true that the recording (submitted by Fadnavis) is of 125 hours, then the use of a powerful agency cannot be ruled out...and such agencies are only under the Government of India," he said.
It is praiseworthy that Fadnavis or any of his colleagues succeeded in capturing the nearly 125-hour video footage, Pawar said sarcastically.
“…It first needs to be proved whether it (the recording) is authentic or not. The state government will definitely probe that…the veracity needs to be confirmed. My name also seems to have been dragged directly/indirectly. There is no reason, I am not related to it,” he said.
Pawar said the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, was not misusing power to target its opponents.
“One thing has to be noted though that all the power of the Centre and all its agencies are in the hands of the people who follow the same ideology as Devendra Fadnavis,” he said.
Pawar claimed that efforts to destabilise the MVA government in the state have not succeeded and hence, "such options" are being explored to bring it down.
The NCP chief also said he hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will probe the complaint raised before him by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with the alleged misuse of central agencies.
“Let's hope he probes it and takes precautions to control the misuse of the agencies,” Pawar said.
He said the Maharashtra government will examine the materials submitted by Fadnavis and will keep facts before the people at the right time.
Pawar, however, without naming anyone, said it is true he had asked Fadnavis to look into a serious complaint he received about one of the BJP leader's colleagues “some time in the past six months or a year”.
“I told him it is not right to make public comments if complaints are made against a person representing the public and hence, I will not talk about it publicly, but you (Fadnavis) look into it," he said.
“Later, I was told by him that he was looking into the complaint I had sent to him and care will be taken to see that such things will not happen. The issue was over for me then and there. Except this, I am nowhere personally related to this,” Pawar said.
He reiterated that central agencies were being “misused on a big scale” against the MVA leaders in Maharashtra and also in the Trinamool Congress Party-ruled West Bengal to discourage BJP's opponents.
Pawar also cited the example of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, who, the NCP chief said, was “jailed after a police complaint by a police official”.
“Deshmukh's is a fitting example of how probes are carried out by misusing agencies," he said.
The NCP chief said as per his information, 95 people close to Deshmukh, including his family, relatives, staff, private secretary and chartered accountant, were raided by central agencies.
The statements of at least 200 people were recorded in Deshmukh's case, he added.
There were 90 raids, including 50 by the ED, 20 by the CBI and 20 by Income Tax Department. “I had never heard something of this sort,” Pawar said.
“They are not succeeding in destabilising the government here and hence, some or the other option is being explored. This does not behove parliamentary democracy,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Satej Patil also hit out at Fadnavis, saying, "Such claims are being made (by Fadnavis) because the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are in power and the BJP is not. Our Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil will respond to it properly.”
“We are also aware that IPS officer Rashmi Shukla tapped the phone calls of members of (the then) opposition parties when Fadnavis was Maharashtra's chief minister. Thanks to our government that such a matter came to light,” Patil said.
The Mumbai police have claimed in an FIR registered last week against Shukla and some other officials that they illegally tapped the phones of Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Eknath Khadse in June 2019 for "vested political interests".
