Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Friday slammed the Bharatiya Janta Party for passing a resolution in its executive demanding CBI and ED probe against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab. While slamming the BJP, Dilip Walse Patil said they are doing wrong things at wrong time.
"Today, in the State, there are important issues such as COVID-19, reservation etc. They (BJP) are doing wrong things at the wrong time," Dilip Walse Patil quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, too, hit out at the BJP. "Are the CBI and the ED your party workers or members of the IT cell?" Raut said. The Rajya Sabha member accused the BJP of lowering the importance of the central investigating agencies - CBI and ED - by "using them for targeting political rivals".
"It is not right to misuse the central investigating agencies. This should stop. It is understandable if the agencies probe cases of national security, loss to national treasury, money laundering. But why are you maligning the image of these agencies?" Raut asked.
This comes a day after Maharashtra unit of BJP demanded a CBI probe against state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Transport Minister Anil Parab in connection with cases related to dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
BJP passed a resolution at a state party convention on Thursday, "demanding CBI inquiry against Pawar and Parab based on Waze's letter in the lines of inquiry initiated after ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh's letter."
In March, Singh was shifted from the post of Mumbai police commissioner to the Home Guards department amid the controversy over Waze's alleged involvement in the Antilia bomb scare.
Later, in a letter to the state government, Singh made allegations of corruption and misuse of official position by the then state home minister Anil Deshmukh.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had indulged in "malpractices" and asked suspended API Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month.
Waze had also written a letter to the NIA in April, claiming that Maharashtra ministers Anil Deshmukh and Anil Parab asked him to illegitimately collect money for them.
Waze, who is being probed by the NIA in the Antilia bomb scare, was produced by the agency for further custody when he attempted to submit this letter. The court, however, told him to follow due process and did not accept it.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
