A day after the state government informed a magistrate court that leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis will be its star witness in the phone tapping case involving IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, NCP chief spokesman Nawab Malik on Saturday said that the former chief minister will have to reveal the source of pen drive containing the purported phone conversation on police the transfer racket.
"It was Fadnavis, who in March at the press conference, had said that he has a pen drive and he will give it to the Central authorities. Now the onus is on Fadnavis to tell who gave him the pen drive. Fadnavis cannot excuse himself from revealing the source," said Malik.
"If a person has secretly taken some information from a government office and stored it in a pen drive, it is mandatory to disclose who has provided the same information," said Malik and claimed that the leakage of data has become a business in the state. He pointed out that the inquiry will be conducted to the stealing of data by some officers on special duty.
Moreover, Malik took a strong objection against Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s purported statement at the function in Nagpur that the Centre may bring back the farm laws. "NCP had demanded the repeal of the three farm laws and after one year Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally made an announcement for their withdrawal. They were now repealed. The government has the right to make new laws but in the case of agriculture if at all the government wants to bring back laws it should do it after due discussions with farmers’ organizations, experts from agriculture and all political parties. There won’t be an opposition if the new legislation is presented after proper deliberations,’’ he added.
However, the matter is serious if the government is in the midst of presenting new laws especially after the earlier three laws were withdrawn and repealed with an eye on upcoming assembly elections. "If the government tables new laws then they will be strongly opposed,’’ he noted
