State unit chief writes to Amit Shah after allegations by sacked police officer Vaze
Bharatiya Janata PartyтАЩs (BJP) Maharashtra unit president Chandrakant Patil has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab based on the allegations levelled against them by controversial police officer Sachin Vaze, who was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in connection with the security scare case outside industrialist Mukesh AmbaniтАЩs residence Antilia in south Mumbai.
Mr. PatilтАЩs letter to Mr. Shah on Wednesday comes after the BJPтАЩs State executive last week had passed a resolution demanding a CBI probe into sacked policeman Mr. VazeтАЩs тАШextortionтАЩ allegations against Mr. Pawar and Mr. Parab.
тАШExtortion targetsтАЩ
In it, Mr. Patil said that Mr. Vaze, in a handwritten letter submitted to the NIA court in April this year, had alleged that he had been given тАШextortion targetsтАЩ by the two ministers to the tune of тВ╣100 crore, while claiming a collapse in the law and order situation in the State owing to a blatant misuse of power by the MVA government.
On behalf of 1.10 crore BJP workers in Maharashtra, Mr. Patil said he was тАЬduty bound to communicate to Mr. Shah of the тАЬblatant abuse of the process of lawтАЭ in Maharashtra by the two leaders who had allegedly тАЬmisused powers vested in themтАЭ to amass Rs. 100 crore and that accordingly a detailed enquiry must be conducted by CBI against them.
Dismissing Mr. PatilтАЩs demand as ludicrous, senior NCP leader and Minister Nawab Malik said that the BJP had no right to act as judge, jury and executioner in the case.
Blatant misuse
тАЬThe public is seeing that it is BJP government at the Centre which is blatantly misusing central agencies and framing leaders in the ruling government in Maharashtra… In the recently concluded Assembly polls in West Bengal, the BJP was rejected outright by the public there. Likewise, the people in Maharashtra will teach them a lesson when the time comes. Nobody is scared anymore of their bullying tactics,тАЭ Mr. Malik said.
Last week, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar had said that it was тАЬhighly unusualтАЭ for a particular party [the BJP] to pass a resolution in their State Executive meet demanding that a central agency probe leaders of another political party.
