Former Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, who is former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ close confidante, has received a major setback as the first information report (FIR), which was registered against him and 28 others in Jalgaon for the alleged extortion and criminal intimidation of the office-bearer of Jalgaon District Maratha Vidya Prasarak Cooperative Board, was on Tuesday transferred to Kothrud police station in Pune for probe.
The FIR was based on a complaint filed by Vijay Patil, who is a lawyer and one of the directors of the Jalgaon District Maratha Vidya Prasarak Cooperative Board, which is a cooperative educational institute in Jalgaon. The alleged offence was committed over a period of time between January 2018 till the time of registration of the case.
According to the FIR, as part of the criminal conspiracy involving all the accused, Patil was threatened and asked to resign from his position. Patil has alleged that, during a visit to Pune in 2018, he was forcibly taken to a flat in Sadashiv Peth area and threatened that he will be booked in false offences. Patil also made allegations of forgery by some of the suspects in order to gain control of the Jalgaon-based institute.
However, Mahajan, who was quite active in BJP’s mega recruitment drive to induct disgruntled leaders from Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has denied all charges and claimed that the registration of FIR was a part of political conspiracy against him. He further said everybody knows the brain behind the FIR registration, saying that police should conduct a thorough inquiry into the charges levelled against him.
