Mumbai, July 25, 2024 — Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has made startling allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Deshmukh claims that Fadnavis, through an intermediary, tried to coerce him into falsely implicating four key leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, including former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Deshmukh, an MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Sharad Pawar, confirmed the allegations made by rationalist Shyam Manav. Manav, a social reformer and head of the Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, alleged that Fadnavis had approached Deshmukh through a third party with a plan to implicate the MVA leaders. Manav signed an affidavit detailing these claims.
In a detailed statement, Deshmukh recounted that three years ago, an aide of Fadnavis approached him and presented an envelope containing documents that required his signature. The documents were intended to implicate Uddhav Thackeray, then Finance Minister Ajit Pawar, then Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray, and then Transport Minister Anil Parab in various charges. Deshmukh said that when he refused to sign the affidavits, he was subsequently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in November 2021 on graft and money laundering charges.
Deshmukh spent over 13 months in Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai following his arrest. He had resigned from his position as Home Minister in April 2021 after being accused by the then Mumbai Police Commissioner of directing the police to collect money from hotel and bar owners across the city.
According to Deshmukh, the allegations included Uddhav Thackeray being involved in earning kickbacks from the civic corporation and Aaditya Thackeray being implicated in the Disha Salian death case. Deshmukh claimed that he was pressured to give a statement against these four leaders but refused to comply.
Deshmukh also hinted that at an appropriate time, he would reveal the identity of the intermediary who approached him with Fadnavis’s demands. He mentioned that the intermediary met him at his official residence and even suggested excluding Ajit Pawar from the list due to his affiliation with the same political party.
In response to these allegations, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis dismissed them as baseless. He countered by claiming that members of Deshmukh’s own party had provided evidence against Uddhav Thackeray, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, and controversial police officer Sachin Vaze. Fadnavis warned that if false allegations continued to be made against him, he would make this evidence public.
The revelations by Deshmukh have added another layer of complexity to Maharashtra’s already turbulent political landscape. As both sides prepare for potential legal and political battles, the public waits to see if further details or evidence will emerge to substantiate these claims.
