BJP demands CBI probe into extortion complaints against Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar

Bharatiya Janata Party Maharashtra unit president Chandrakant Patil has written to Home Minister Amit Shah demanding an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and State Transport Minister Anil Parab over their alleged involvement in cases related to senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh and former policeman Sachin Waze.

Accusing the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) coalition government in Maharashtra of “blatant misuse of political power”, Chandrakant Patil said: “The collapse of law and order in Maharashtra is deliberately induced to amass wealth by heinous ways adopted for collecting illegal money.”

Patil in his letter to Amit Shah wrote that Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze, who is now in judicial custody and has been charged with murder, had accused Pawar of inducing him to collect Rs 100 crore from illegal gutkha (chewing tobacco) sellers and manufacturers.

The Maharashtra BJP head further stated that Waze also accused Anil Parab of coaxing him to collect money from contractors of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He reportedly told the former Maharashtra policeman to collect Rs 2 crore from about 50 such contractors.

Earlier this year, Param Bir Singh had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray accusing Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of extortion.

Singh had claimed that Deshmukh had asked Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore for him per month from bars restaurants, and other establishments.