Mumbai: Crime Branch to verify over 4,500 pro-Uddhav Thackeray affidavits

A Crime Branch team visited Vasai and Virar to verify the affidavits on Wednesday. Pic/Hanif Patel

The Mumbai Crime Branch's Unit 9 sent its teams to Vasai, Virar, Palghar, Kolhapur, Solapur and other places on Wednesday to verify the affidavits found in support of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction outside Bandra court. The Nirmal Nagar police had registered the FIR against unknown persons after they recently found over 4,500 affidavits with two people, who were signing the affidavits and affixing the notary seal and stamp on them. While preparing the affidavit, the applicant should be present in front of the advocate who prepares it, but no other persons were present there.

Crime Branch DCP Sangramsingh Nishandar said, "We checked all 4,682 affidavits and accordingly formed teams to verify them. We sent our teams to Kolhapur, Virar, Vasai, Palghar and many other cities to verify the documents. We are checking whether the people mentioned on them from these places have genuinely asked for these affidavits. We have not arrested anyone in this case so far. We will take action after the investigation."

Also Read: Maharashtra: Help pours in for starving dogs, monkeys at Elephanta island

After the affidavits were found, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction had alleged that it was a big scam by Uddhav Thackeray and his faction ahead of the upcoming by-polls. The Thackeray faction claimed that the allegations were baseless and a trap by Shinde's faction to defame Uddhav and his party workers.

Recently, the election commission had asked both the Shiv Sena factions to submit figures of their members with affidavits.
Last week, complainant Sanjay Parsuram Kadam found the affidavits being made outside the Bandra court and he informed the Nirmal Nagar police.

4,682
No. of the affidavits found