Pooja Chavan suicide case: Police is under pressure, says Devendra Fadnavis

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray assured a thorough probe into social media star Pooja Chavan’s death, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that the police seem to be under pressure.

The name of Shiv Sena leader from Vidarbha region and forest minister Sanjay Rathod has cropped up in the case.

Pooja Lahu Chavan, who was a TikTok star, hailed from Parli in the Beed district of Maharashtra.

“Investigations are not being done as the way it should be... police seem to be under pressure... audio clips have surfaced... everyone knows whose voice it is except the police,” Fadnavis, a former chief minister, who also held the home portfolio, told reporters in Nagpur.

On Saturday, Thackeray had announced a probe. “A thorough probe will be done and the truth will come out before the people. The guilty will be punished but innocent need to suffer... the truth will not be hidden,” he had said.

The chief minister has also sought a report from Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta.

Thackeray’s advisor on farmers issues Kishore Tiwari said that he had known Rathod for the last 25 years. “The Opposition is talking about audio takes... we have videotapes also,” said Tiwari, the founder of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti and chairperson of Maharashtra government-run Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission.

According to him, earlier the BJP had targeted social justice minister Dhananjay Munde. "We have also seen in the Sushant Singh Rajput case how the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was attacked, we have seen the Disha Salian case... the CBI is yet to announce the findings of the investigations in the Sushant Singh Rajput case," he said.

State’s revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat of the Congress said that the chief minister has already ordered a probe and we should allow the probe to be complete.

"Law will prevail and not what the Opposition wants. Truth will always prevail. The chief minister is a sensitive person and will never do anything wrong. People of the state trust him,” Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told reporters in Nashik.

“The woman who levelled allegations against social justice minister Dhananjay Munde withdrew her charges against him. Now there are some allegations against another minister Sanjay Rathod, who is one of the pillars of Shiv Sena in Vidarbha. The truth will come out in the probe,” he said.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew and party MLA Rohit Pawar said: “The police are already investigating the matter and we should allow the probe to be complete before concluding anything.”