Congress, on Sunday, led a scathing attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for accusing it of trying to destabilise the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. The party, which shares power with Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the state, claimed that former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, who levelled allegations of corruption against state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, might be under the pressure of central government agencies. It alleged that BJP has hatched a conspiracy for the fall of the MVA government.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Spokesman Sachin Sawant said it was not for the first time in India that a serving officer raised allegations against those in power.
“For the last six years, attempts have been made to destabilise the opposition governments by abusing the power at the Centre. Administrative officers under the jurisdiction of the state are being pressured using the central government's investigative mechanisms. The examples of Vinod Rai and Satyapal Singh are before the country. The MVA government should not fall prey to the conspiracy of BJP,” said Sawant.
Sawant questioned Singh’s charges and said, “Deshmukh was in hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 in February. I had had online interactions with Deshmukh on two occasions when he was indisposed. If Singh's allegations are believed to be true, then why did he wait till March and till he was transferred to raise them?”
He said Singh could be under pressure from the central government’s agencies since his close aide (Sachin Vaze, a suspended police officer) is in the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) custody. "Singh's allegations raise several questions. All this is scripted. How the leaders of BJP gave sound bites to news channels minutes after Singh's letter became public," he alleged.
Congress’ Spokesman also questioned NIA’s rush to investigate all the cases when the state Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) had sought custody of Sachin Vaze in court. “Was it to prevent the ATS from getting custody of Vaze? How the name Jaish-ul-Hind was emailed from Tihar Jail under the nose of the Narendra Modi government. Who provided mobile phones to the criminals there?” asked Sawant, saying that the answers to these questions are necessary.