One-month extension to Mum police in plaint against Vilasrao

A local magistrate's court today granted a one-month extension to Mumbai Police to probe a complaint against union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for his alleged interference in criminal cases against a Congress MLA from Vidarbha during his tenure as Maharashtra chief minister.

"The police were directed to file a report today but they sought time for one more month, following which the court granted them the extension," said advocate Ashish Giri who had filed the private plaint on behalf of citizen Abdul Malik Chaudhary in the magistrate's court in 2011, seeking criminal case against Deshmukh.

The incident related to Deshmukh's alleged action as chief minister dating back to May, 2006, after which cases were registered by farmers of Vidharbha region.

According to the complaint, Congress MLA Dilip Sananda and his family had been lending money to farmers at exorbitant rates in Vidarbha. The family was accused of harassment of farmers for loan-recovery.

As far as Deshmukh's role is concerned, when one of the farmers tried to lodge a police complaint against Sananda, Deshmukh allegedly called up the local zilla parishad officials and instructed them to ensure that no complaint was taken against Sananda. The farmer took the case to the Bombay High Court which ruled against the state government and asked Deshmukh to pay a fine of  Rs 25,000 to the farmer.

The Supreme Court had in its ruling on December 14, 2010, pulled up Deshmukh for being "anachronistic" and "incongruous" for his interference.

A total of 34 complaints were registered against Sananda and his family till June 28, 2006, but due to Deshmukh's "interference" no subsequent case was filed by police, forcing the distressed farmers to move the high court.