Ex-DGP's SIT report shows bid to falsely implicate me under MVA rule: Fadnavis

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said an SIT report submitted by former DGP Rashmi Shukla indicates there was an attempt to frame him in false cases during the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

Before she retired on January 3, Shukla submitted a report to the home department based on an inquiry conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), sources claimed on Saturday.

The report suggested that then DGP Sanjay Pandey, Deputy Commissioner of Police Laxmikant Patil and Assistant Commissioner of Police Sardar Patil were involved in a conspiracy to implicate Fadnavis (who was then Leader of Opposition in the assembly) as well as current deputy CM Eknath Shinde (then a minister), by re-investigating a 2016 extortion case registered at Thane Nagar Police Station, they said.

Shukla recommended that a First Information Report be registered against these three officials, the sources added.

To a question on the SIT report, Fadnavis told reporters on Saturday evening, "The politics of revenge during the MVA rule has been established on how there was an attempt to frame me in false cases." In 2016, a case was registered against Shyamsunder Agarwal at Thane Nagar Police Station following a dispute between him and his former business partner, real estate developer Sanjay Punamiya. A charge sheet was filed in 2017.

Pandey, who headed the state police force when the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power, ordered a reinvestigation of the case, it is alleged.

Punamiya later filed a complaint at the same police station, alleging that the 2016 case was used as a pretext for reinvestigation between 2021 and June 2024 to harass him and extort money from him. Based on his complaint, an extortion case was registered against Pandey and seven others in 2024.

BJP leader and legislative council member Pravin Darekar had raised the issue in the Maharashtra legislature, claiming that this was a conspiracy to frame Fadnavis and Shinde.