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Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigns

Deshmukh called on NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and held discussions
Last Updated 05 April 2021, 12:55 IST

Maharashtra’s high-profile Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of the NCP resigned on Monday hours after the Bombay High Court ordered a “preliminary enquiry” by the CBI into the serious allegations of corruption charges levelled by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and its architect and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar were under tremendous pressure for nearly a month over the demand of Deshmukh’s resignation by the BJP.

Singh - an officer of the 1988-batch of the IPS – who was moved as commandant general of Home Guards, has alleged that Deshmukh had fixed a Rs 100 crore per month ‘collection target’ from controversial police officer Sachin Vaze.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni ruled a CBI probe after last week’s hearing of a bunch of public interest litigations and criminal writ petitions.

The order came vis-à-vis the petition filed by lawyer-activist Jaishri Patil, however, the other petitions including that of Singh were disposed of. “As of necessity, the probe has to be entrusted to an independent agency like the CBI… Although we do not see an immediate reason to direct registration of an FIR by the CBI, however, in the interest of justice, in our opinion, would be sufficiently served if the Director, CBI is directed to initiate a preliminary inquiry,” it said.

The bench asked the inquiry in 15 days after which a call on further action can be taken.

Immediately after the order, Deshmukh met Pawar, who spoke to his nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Water Resources Minister and state NCP president Jayant Patil.

After this, Deshmukh, a 70-year-old leader from Vidarbha, sent his resignation to Thackeray.

“His continuation in the post has become untenable,” said the leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis.

State BJP president Chandrakant Patil, “We welcome the resignation of Deshmukh. Pawar saheb has a political career of 54 years… if Deshmukh was allowed to continue, it would not have been a good sign.”

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(Published 05 April 2021, 09:16 IST)

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