Maharashtra govt will probe video submitted by Devendra Fadnavis: Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the Maharashtra government will definitely probe the authenticity of a video footage submitted by BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis who has alleged that the ruling alliance is hatching conspiracies against its political opponentsTalking to reporters here Pawar also said his name was being mentioned directlyindirectly in connection with the alleged conspiracy but he was nowhere related to itFadnavis on Tuesday submitted a pen drive containing video recordings to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal saying the footage showed how conspiracies were hatched by police and members of the ruling MVA to frame BJP leaders including himself and Girish Mahajan in false casesPawar laughed at the suggestion that he wanted to finish Fadnavis and BJP leader Girish Mahajan politically So it seems there is also some comic information in it the material submitted by Fadnavis One cannot get finished like this he saidIf it is true that the recording submitted by Fadnavis is of 125 hours then the use of a powerful agency cannot be ruled outand such agencies are only under the Government of India he saidIt is praiseworthy that Fadnavis or any of his colleagues succeeded in capturing the nearly 125hour video footage Pawar said sarcasticallyIt first needs to be proved whether it the recording is authentic or not The state government will definitely probe thatthe veracity needs to be confirmed My name also seems to have been dragged directlyindirectly There is no reason I am not related to it he saidPawar said the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA comprising the Shiv Sena NCP and Congress was not misusing power to target its opponentsOne thing has to be noted though that all the power of the Centre and all its agencies are in the hands of the people who follow the same ideology as Devendra Fadnavis he saidPawar claimed that efforts to destabilise the MVA government in the state have not succeeded and hence such options are being explored to bring it downThe NCP chief also said he hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will probe the complaint raised before him by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with the alleged misuse of central agenciesLets hope he probes it and takes precautions to control the misuse of the agencies Pawar saidHe said the Maharashtra government will examine the materials submitted by Fadnavis and will keep facts before the people at the right timePawar however without naming anyone said it is true he had asked Fadnavis to look into a serious complaint he received about one of the BJP leaders colleagues some time in the past six months or a yearI told him it is not right to make public comments if complaints are made against a person representing the public and hence I will not talk about it publicly but you Fadnavis look into it he saidLater I was told by him that he was looking into the complaint I had sent to him and care will be taken to see that such things will not happen The issue was over for me then and there Except this I am nowhere personally related to this Pawar saidHe reiterated that central agencies were being misused on a big scale against the MVA leaders in Maharashtra and also in the TMCruled West Bengal to discourage BJPs opponentsPawar also cited the example of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh who the NCP chief said was jailed after a police complaint by a police officialDeshmukhs is a fitting example of how probes are carried out by misusing agencies he saidThe NCP chief said as per his information 95 people close to Deshmukh including his family relatives staff private secretary and chartered accountant were raided by central agenciesThe statements of at least 200 people were recorded in Deshmukhs case he addedThere were 90 raids including 50 by the ED 20 by the CBI and 20 by Income Tax Department I had never heard something of this sort Pawar saidThey are not succeeding in destabilising the government here and hence some or the other option is being explored This does not behove parliamentary democracy he saidMeanwhile Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Satej Patil also hit out at Fadnavis saying Such claims are being made by Fadnavis because the Shiv Sena NCP and Congress are in power and the BJP is not Our Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil will respond to it properlyWe are also aware that IPS officer Rashmi Shukla tapped the phone calls of members of the then opposition parties when Fadnavis was Maharashtras chief minister Thanks to our government that such a matter came to light Patil saidThe Mumbai police have claimed in an FIR registered last week against Shukla and some other officials that they illegally tapped the phones of Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Eknath Khadse in June 2019 for vested political interestsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right 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