Anil Deshmukh’s allegations must be true: Patole

Nagpur, Jul 25 (PTI) Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Thursday said former state home minister Anil Deshmukh’s allegation that he was under pressure to give statements against key figures in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government rang true.

The political situation in the country has changed after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, and an “experiment is going on” in a big way to put in jail on false charges those who are against the BJP regime, he claimed, speaking to reporters here.

This experiment also took place in Maharashtra and those who toed the ruling party’s line got a clean chit (in corruption cases), Patole said.

The BJP’s allies in Maharashtra — Shiv Sena and NCP — were afraid of action by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation, he alleged.

If present home minister Devendra Fadnavis had any video evidence against Anil Deshmukh, he must publish it, Patole said, wondering if the BJP leader was waiting to use it in any other way.

On Wednesday, Deshmukh alleged that an ‘intermediary’ of Fadnavis had asked him to provide affidavits against important figures in the MVA government to avoid getting embroiled in litigation himself. But Fadnavis denied the allegation.

Deshmukh, who is now with the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, stepped down as home minister in April 2021 after then Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of asking police to collect money from hotel and bar owners in the city.

Fadnavis, now deputy chief minister, termed the allegation as baseless.

“Anil Deshmukh should know that his own party leaders have provided me with multiple pieces of audio-visual evidence of his comments about then CM Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, or the controversial police officer Sachin Waze. If false accusations are levelled against me, I will have no choice but to make this evidence public,” Fadnavis had said in his reaction on Wednesday.