Government lawyer accused of framing Maharashtra BJP leaders in criminal cases quits

Last week, Fadnavis had submitted video recordings to allege a plot to frame BJP leaders in false cases. File pic

Responding to a bunch of video recordings that the opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis had submitted last week, Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil told the Assembly on Monday that Special Public Prosecutor Pravin Chavan, who, along with some politicians and police officers, was accused of plotting to frame BJP leaders in criminal cases, has resigned. The state CID will investigate the matter, said the minister, rejecting the opposition's demand for transferring the case to the CBI.

Before walking out in protest, the opposition said it will move the court to seek a probe by the Central agency. Last Tuesday, Fadnavis told the house that he had 125 hours of video recordings of Chavan tutoring the police officers, complainants and politicians on framing his party colleagues. He said ex-ministers Girish Mahajan, Jaikumar Rawal, Sanjay Kute, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Subhash Deshmukh and Chandrashekhar Bawakule were on the target list.

Dilip Walse Patil, state home minister

Walse Patil said the case related to Mahajan was about an educational institute in Jalgaon which two groups want under their control. The case is being probed and 29 people have been arrested so far, he said, stating further that the case was registered in one place called Nimbhora and then transferred to Pune. "In [actor] Sushant Singh case as well, the case was first registered in Bihar and then transferred to CBI," he said, assuring a fair probe. "Chavan has resigned and we have accepted his papers. State CID has been asked to investigate."

On Fadnavis's allegation that the police were trying to frame him in the phone tapping case and that he wasn't afraid of going to jail in a false case, Walse Patil said that the opposition leader's statement was recorded on Sunday as a routine process in such cases and there was no attempt to frame him. Before the home minister's reply, Fadnavis told the house, "I was asked questions that were qualitatively different from the questions I was sent earlier. I was asked where I breached the Official Secrets Act." He said he cannot be accused of violating the Official Secrets Act, because the Whistle Blowers Protection Act defended him for providing information about corruption.

Fadnavis pulls out audiotape

Earlier in the day, Fadnavis produced an audiotape stressing that one Dr Mudassir Lambe, who claimed to be close to the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was appointed as a member of the Maharashtra State Board of Waqf. Walse Patil said the person was not appointed but elected on the board in September 2019, but assured to probe his alleged underworld links and take appropriate action if the allegations were true.

The home minister countered the opposition leader's charge the state police were being misused against political rivals by citing cases against his predecessor Anil Deshmukh and cabinet colleague Nawab Malik. He said Malik should have been probed for dealing with the underworld when Fadnavis was CM.

Later, Nilofer Malik Khan, daughter of the wakf minister Nawab Malik, tweeted that Dr Lambe was appointed a Waqf Board member by the Fadnavis government on September 13, 2019. "MahavikasAghadi govt was established in November 2019. My father got Minority/Waqf Dept in the first week of Jan 2020," she added.

125
No. of hrs of video recordings Fadnavis claims to have