Param Bir targeted me at Fadnavis' behest, says Anil Deshmukh; BJP denies

Nagpur: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday claimed Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had tried to save ex-Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh from arrest by asking him to level allegations against Deshmukh to topple the MVA government.

The BJP dismissed the charges, saying it was a strategy to defame Fadnavis, and asked how could a leader who was then in opposition ask a police officer for such a thing.

When the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was in power in 2021, NCP (SP) leader Deshmukh resigned as home minister after Singh accused him of setting a target to collect Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants.

Deshmukh has also claimed that dismissed police officer Sachin Waze was levelling allegations against him at the behest of Fadnavis.

Waze is accused of planting gelatin sticks outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence 'Antilia' in February 2021 and is also booked for the related murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran, the owner of the explosives-laden vehicle.

During a press conference in Nagpur on Monday, reporters asked Deshmukh about Fadnavis commenting that Singh and Waze were appointed when Deshmukh was the home minister.

In reply, Deshmukh claimed, " When I was the home minister of Maharashtra, we came to know in an inquiry that (the then) Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh was the mastermind behind the bomb in a Scorpio vehicle found near 'Antilia' residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Singh was also mastermind behind the killing of the Scorpio vehicle owner. Singh along with his other accomplices had carried out this." Singh was supposed to get arrested three years back and to avoid it, he "surrendered himself to Fadnavis and the central government," the NCP (SP) leader charged.

"Fadnavis assured Singh that he won't be arrested, but on the condition that he will have to level allegations against me to topple the MVA government. Hence, Param Bir Singh levelled allegations against me," Deshmukh claimed.

The former home minister has also dared Fadnavis to make the Justice Chandiwal Commission report public, claiming he had been given a clean chit in the graft case against him.

Fadnavis on Sunday said the Chandiwal Commission report was submitted when the MVA was in power but no action was taken.

Countering it, Deshmukh on Monday said, "It is right that the report was submitted to the MVA government, but it fell within a few days after the report was submitted, and hence the MVA government could not release it." Subsequently, the Mahayuti government (of Shiv Sena and BJP) came to power and the Chandiwal Commission report is kept with Fadnavis for the last two years, he claimed.

" I have been requesting them to make the report public, but Fadnavis is diverting the issue by saying the report was submitted during the MVA government and is delaying making it public. I again urge Fadnavis to make that report public," Deshmukh said.

To a query on banners allegedly defaming him erected in Nagpur by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Deshmukh claimed such hoardings were put "by the blessings of Devendra Fadnavis" and said police have taken action and removed them.

The police will take action against those who put up the banners, he added.

When contacted, BJP state spokesperson Chandan Goswami claimed the opposition INDIA alliance and the MVA were working on a strategy of telling lies, like their claim that the Constitution will be changed.

On Deshmukh's claims against Fadnavis, Goswami asked how can a leader in opposition ask a police commissioner for such a thing when the MVA government had appointed Param Bir Singh.

"It is all a strategy to defame Fadnavis," he said.