JOIN USMaharashtra govt's sole agenda is extorting money: BJP
A day after suspended Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze levelled serious corruption charges against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, the BJP Thursday flayed the Maharashtra government alleging its sole agenda is extorting money and it has no moral right to govern.
Vaze had claimed Wednesday claimed Deshmukh had demanded Rs 2 crore from him to continue his service in Mumbai police and alleged state minister Anil Parab asked him to collect money from some contractors in Mumbai. Parab rubbished Vaze's claim.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar hit out at Shiv Sena supremo and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for defending Vaze.
He said Thackeray defending Vaze had stated that the police officer is not Osama bin Laden. Similarly, his party leader Sanjay Raut had said that a promising, capable, officer was harmed, Javadekar noted. "They are defending Vaze as they are afraid that he might reveal the truth," he said.
The entire controversy shows the character of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, Javadekar said. "It is not Maha Vikas Agadi government but Maha Vikas Vasuli government which working with the sole agenda of extorting money," he alleged.
"They have no right to remain in power and we demand their resignation," he said.
Javadekar, who himself hails from Maharashtra, said for the last month or so, with new revelation coming in this conspiracy there is much turmoil in the state government and it has a lot to answer for.
Waze, an accused in the case of an explosives-laden car found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in south Mumbai and the death of businessman Mansukh Hiran, is currently in NIA custody.
Deshmukh, a senior NCP leader, resigned as home minister on Monday after the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI probe into corruption allegations levelled against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.