Shiv Sena (UBT)’s plan to corner Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appeared to have succeeded in the state legislative council on Tuesday as three senior Shiv Sena legislators—leader of opposition Ambadas Danve, and former ministers Sachin Ahir and Anil Parab—targeted the state home department (and Fadnavis as he is the home minister) on the issue of Lalit Patil drugs racket case.
While Sachin Ahir demanded that a narco test should be conducted on Lalit Patil, a drug kingpin who was arrested by state police a few weeks ago, Anil Parab came out with details of rate paid by criminals to get medical certificates and remain in hospitals.
Shiv Sena (UBT) had been trying to target and corner Fadnaivs for some time. They tried by raising the issue of Nawab Malik who, on the first two days of the legislature session, sat with his NCP colleagues on the ruling benches. The party then asked how Fadnavis was willing to include Malik in the ruling alliance as he himself had accused Malik of anti-national activities. Fadnavis cleverly dodged the issue and pushed the ball in Ajit Pawar’s court by writing a letter to him saying the BJP does not want Malik to join the saffron grand alliance till his name is cleared in the probe launched against him.
The issue of Lalit Patil drugs racket case was raised by Congress’ Bhai Jagtap. However, the battle was fought between Shiv Sena (UBT)’s three legislators and Fadnavis.
Anil Parab said in the house that he had explosive information. “I will give you a list, which criminal is getting admitted to which hospital, who is getting medical certificates from where. The drugs menace has reached such levels that even watchmen of buildings and societies have started selling drugs,” claimed Parab. “ I can tell you who is paying how much to stay where pretending medical emergency,” added Parab.
Ahir said the police have not been able to arrest Sanjiv Thakur, another alleged kingpin in the drugs case. Lalit Patil should be made to undergo narco analysis test. Not just Patil, other accused should also undergo the test, and many more shocking details will come out, said Ahir.
Defending his ministry, Fadnavis said the then police commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad Krishna Prakash had written a letter to the then state government (Uddhav Thackeray government) in 2021 alerting the government about the drugs racket. But no action was taken at that time. “Our government has taken action. We have formed anti-drugs task force. We have demolished more than 2000 paan shops that were selling drugs near schools and colleges. Action has also been taken against many hukkah parlours for selling drugs. The government has even started a detention centre for Nigerian and other foreign criminals whose intention is to get caught by the police so that they can prolong their stay in India,” said Fadnavis.
