MVA government is on 'Action Mode'

Pune (Maharashtra, India): Maharashtra State Cooperation Department on Monday served notice to Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, Pravin Darekar, for allegedly committing fraud of Rs 27 crore as the chairman of the Mumbai District Central Bank.

Addressing the matter, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Maharashtra State President Chandrakant Dada Patil said, “I had also raised this issue earlier as our leaders are being targeted by the MVA government. Unnecessarily they are doing this to malignise our image."

As per the notice, Darekar had allegedly disbursed Rs 27 crore to BJP MLA Suresh Dhus and his company by violating all norms. 

Suresh Dhus, BJP MLA from Beed, had shown on paper two companies, which did not exist, for which loan was sanctioned by the bank during Darekar’s tenure. It was also alleged that Beed district is not under the jurisdiction of Mumbai District Central Bank.

National Congress Party leader Balashaeb Patil who heads the State Cooperation Department has sought an explanation from Darekar. However, Darekar refused all allegations and said NCP is doing this to settle political scores after the arrest of NCP leader Nawab Malik in a money laundering case. 

“Loan is not issued by Darker only, it's a decision of our management committee. I think we have completed all formalities before the disbursement of the loan. They are targeting me to settle a political score. Every time they bring up the new issue but not a single issue raised by NCP has withstood legal scrutiny,’’ Patil said.

It is worthwhile to note that the appointment of Sanjay Pandey as a new Mumbai Police Commissioner has intensified the war between MVA government and the BJP leaders in the state. Within a week of this new appointment, BJP leaders started getting notices for various frauds/scams.

Before Pravin Darekar, Union Minister Narayan Rane and his son MLA Nitesh Rane were interrogated for nine hours at Malvani Police Station on March 5 in connection with their statement regarding the death of Disha Salian, a former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. 

Salian died on June 8, 2020, just days before Rajput’s alleged suicide in Mumbai. Narayan Rane and Nitesh had alleged that Salian was murdered and that her fall to death from the 14th floor of an apartment was not accidental.

Salian’s parents refuted all these allegations and complained to the Maharashtra State Commission for Women against Narayan Rane and Nitesh, saying there was no truth in their claims. The complaint says the minister and his son had maligned Disha’s image.

 “We are fighting to get justice for the deceased. There should be a thorough investigation into how the young woman fell from the 14th floor,” Narayan Rane said. 

In 2020, Nitesh had also alleged that a young minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government was present at the June 8, 2020, party attended by Disha. She was found dead hours later. 

Followingly, Rane further received notice from Shiv Sena stating that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) alleged unauthorised alterations carried out at his bungalow in Mumbai. BMC has asked Rane to submit his written reply within a week, why the original building plan was altered.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai session court rejected an anticipatory bail plea filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya's son Neil Somaya fearing arrest by Mumbai police's economic offences wing. Earlier Sena leader Raut demanded arrest of Somaiyas for their alleged links to the PMC bank scam. This clearly shows that the political war between the MVA Government and BJP leaders has intensified and it is interesting to see how BJP will react to this in the coming days.