‘No clean chit for Anil Deshmukh, attempt to frame Devendra Fadnavis’

Justice K U Chandiwal retired who probed the corruption charges against Anil Deshmukh has said that he had not given lsquoclean chitrsquo to the thenhome minister in his inquiry report and that Deshmukh and police officer Sachin Waze had tried to implicate thenOpposition leader Devendra FadnavisChandiwal made some stunning revelations in an interview given to ABP Majha creating ripples in political circles amid the state Assembly polls campaign Recently Deshmukh published his biographical account that dealt with the case and the days he spent in prisonThe MVA government had appointed retired high court Justice Chandiwal to probe the graft allegations the cityrsquos former police chief Param Bir Singh had levelled against Deshmukh The Chandiwal Commission report was submitted to thenChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Neither the MVA nor the Mahayuti government made it publicSingh had written an eightpage letter to the CM and governor accusing Deshmukh of several malpractices He claimed Deshmukh made a plan to extract R100 crore from the cityrsquos hotels bars and restaurants by pressing police officer Sachin Waze into service Before resigning Deshmukh had requested then CM Uddhav Thackeray to initiate an inquiry against himThe retired justice said that he had refused to record the names of Sharad Pawar then chief of undivided NCP and Ajit Pawar then DyCM that were mentioned in Wazersquos affidavit with the purpose of implicating them Chandiwal further told the interviewer that Waze and Deshmukh had also tried to frame Fadnavis ldquoI told Waze that I would not take it on record as evidence Taking big names was an attempt to seek publicity I didnrsquot want that to happen It was not in the scope of my inquiryrdquo he addedWaze retracted the affidavits later said Chandiwal ldquoI had clearly told Waze that I would not summon political people named in his affidavits and take anything on recordrdquo When asked about retractions Chandiwal said one Thane DCP who regularly attended hearings would intervene He also said that he was told that the people Waze Deshmukh Parambir Singh who were being probed and summoned by him had metlsquoEvidence not submittedrsquoHe said he had not used the words lsquoclean chitrsquo for Deshmukh who claimed to have been exonerated by the commission ldquoI have not given Deshmukh a clean chit I said that the evidence was not submitted despite being availablerdquo he stated further adding that the situation would have been different if the evidence had been submitted ldquoSingh later said in an affidavit that whatever he had alleged against Deshmukh was hearsayrdquo According to him his report had strictures and recommendations that could not be lsquodigestedrsquo by any governmentNo evidence DeshmukhDeshmukh said though Chandiwal had said there was no mention of lsquoclean chitrsquo he had amply made clear that there was no evidence against him Deshmukh He wondered how he could meet Waze or any other person when he was in jail He said he had no idea about the DCP Chandiwal talked aboutFresh CBI probe needed FadnavisDyCM Fadnavis said the revelations were explosive and the commission said that it had not given any clean chit to Deshmukh He further said that Waze had written a letter that he was under pressure and that had been vindicated now ldquoI think that the CBI should conduct a fresh inquiry into thisrdquo Fadnavis said