Never seen such blatant misuse of central agencies: Supriya Sule on ED raids at Anil Deshmukh’s home

As the Enforcement DIrectorate (ED) Friday carried out searches at the Mumbai and Nagpur residences of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, NCP MP Supriya Sule said the country has never seen such blatant misuse of central agencies the way it is being done by the BJP-led government.

“The BJP accuses the Congress of Emergency excesses all the time. What we are witnessing today has probably never been seen or heard. This is the first time I am witnessing this kind of misuse of central agencies against political opponents. This is a new SOP which BJP has come up with, it seems to be BJP’s style of operation,” said Sule, who is the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, adding that her party will fight back.

Sule said Maharashtra has never experienced misuse of power to meet political ends. “Maharashtra has had a political culture… it does not involve harassing opponents for political gains.”

Sule said the raids came even as the country was facing one of its biggest challenges of tackling COVID. “Instead of effectively tackingly COVID and focusing its attention on rising unemployment and health care, the central government is busy playing vendetta politics,” she said.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil echoed Sule and said: “The ED raids are being conducted because they could not find anything during the investigation. Now they are trying to dig up some 10 year old cases to frame Deshmukh.

Reacting to the raids, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut, too, accused the government of misusing the central agencies to harass its opponent unnecessarily. Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut, too, accused the government of misusing the central agencies to harass its opponent unnecessarily. “If there is any fit case that the CBI should investigate, it is the Ayodhya land scandal. In fact, the BJP national executive should pass a resolution recommending a CBI probe into the Ayodhya land,” said Raut.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said after Sachin Waze’s, more skeletons have tumbled out of the closet. “No one should give it a political colour. Even during the Congress regime its leader Suresh Kalmadi was raided by CBI and subsequently arrested. Did anyone accuse Congress of misusing central agencies…The CBI should be allowed to do its work. It has been conducting investigation only after facts emerged,” he said.