After the former Mumbai top cop levelled allegations of corruption against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, BJP's leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis called for the minister's immediate sacking. "The home minister should resign, or else the chief minister should remove him. We call for an impartial probe, and we need answers as to why the letter says the chief minister knew about this earlier but did not act," he said.
The BJP on Saturday had demanded an independent probe into Param Bir Singh's corruption allegations Deshmukh and said such a "criminally-minded" government has no right to continue even for a minute. After Singh made an explosive allegation that Deshmukh wanted police officers to collect Rs 100 crore per month, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said it is "one of the darkest moments" in Indian democracy when a dispensation duty-bound to protect people has indulged in "government-monitored and controlled extortion racket".
In response, Deshmukh had said that he will file a defamation case. Deshmukh, an NCP leader, had tweeted earlier refuting Singh's allegation that he had asked police officers to collect money from bars, restaurants and other establishments. In a statement, Deshmukh also asked why Singh was keeping silent for so long, and alleged that the IPS officer, shunted out from the post of city police commissioner on Wednesday, was only trying to save his own skin in the Sachin Vaze case. "The allegations made by Singh are false and I am filing a case of defamation against him," Deshmukh said.
What the letter said
In an eight-page letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh alleged that Deshmukh used to call police officers to his official residence and give them a "collection target" from bars, restaurants and other establishments. Singh claimed that Vaze, who headed Mumbai police Crime Intelligence Unit, was called by Deshmukh many times in the last few months and repeatedly instructed to assist in collection of the funds.
The IPS officer claimed that the minister told Waze that he had set a target of collecting Rs 100 crore a month, half of it from nearly 1,750 bars, restaurants and similar establishments operating in the city.
Singh also claimed that Deshmukh "from day one" wanted a case of abutment of suicide to be registered in Mumbai after the death of Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar in a Mumbai hotel last month.
"A collective appraisal of events that have transpired and what is being pointed out by me makes it clear that I have been made a scapegoat to divert attention from the actual wrongdoers," Singh's eight-page letter said.
-Inputs from PTI
