06 April,2021 05:07 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
Dilip Walse Patil and Anil Deshmukh
Mired in controversies for almost two months, Anil Deshmukh resigned from the home minister's post on Monday after a division bench of Bombay High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary probe into the graft allegations levelled by city's former police commissioner Param Bir Singh. State Excise and Labour Minister Dilip Walse Patil was named Deshmukh's replacement in the evening.
The new home minister, Dilip Walse Patil
Deshmukh submitted his papers to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after consulting his party boss Sharad Pawar and senior leaders. His letter said that holding a minister's office while under a CBI probe would be morally inappropriate. After leaving the office, Deshmukh decided to challenge the high court's order in the Supreme Court and left for New Delhi to engage lawyers.
Walse Patil's experience as a minister of energy and finance in the previous governments, an excellent stint as Speaker and his close association with Pawar landed him the crucial job amid the crisis. His labour department was given to Rural Development Minister Hassan Mushrif and excise went to Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
In February this year, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Rathod quit on the eve of the budget session due to allegations of abetting a woman's suicide. The Sena hasn't inducted a new face in the Cabinet. Some Congress leaders want their party to rejig the party's ministerial offices, but the high command hasn't shown much interest in changing the set-up.
Anil Deshmukh
Even before the dust could have settled over the Rathod episode, Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis had raised the Sachin Waze case in the legislature, creating a political storm. The NCP defended Deshmukh to the hilt, but the high court's directive prompted him to step down.
The Deshmukh-Singh spat took political and police circles by storm last month when Singh wrote to the CM and governor, alleging that Deshmukh had given certain police officers, including Waze, orders to collect Rs 100 crore per month from Mumbai's hotels, restaurants and bars. Later, he moved the apex court which asked him to approach the high court. Bombay High Court's Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni clubbed four writ petitions and PILs in this regard. The division bench issued orders in a writ petition filed by Dr Jaishri Patil, who had filed a complaint based on Singh's allegations seeking enquiry against Deshmukh, but was aggrieved because of inaction from the police.
The court said that directions are required for facilitating an unbiased, impartial, fair but effective probe so that the truth is unearthed and the devil, if any, shamed in accordance with the procedure established by law. "Here, Shri Deshmukh is the Home Minister. The police department is under his control and direction. There can be no fair, impartial, unbiased and untainted probe, if the same were entrusted to the State Police Force. As of necessity, the probe has to be entrusted to an independent agency like the CBI," said the court.
The order said that there was no immediate reason to direct registration of an FIR by the CBI based on Dr Patil's complaint. "Interest of justice, in our opinion, would be sufficiently served if the Director, CBI is directed to initiate a preliminary enquiry into the complaint of Dr Patil which has the letter of Shri Param Bir addressed to the Hon'ble Chief Minister, as an annexure. Also, the press release of Shri Deshmukh suggests that he is not averse to facing any enquiry," it added, asking the CBI to complete a preliminary probe in 15 days. The court said the director, CBI, shall be at liberty to decide on the future course of action and inform the petitioner accordingly.
"We expected Mr Sharad Pawar to seek Deshmukh's resignation after Singh's allegations and (IPS officer) Rashmi Shukla's report in the police transfer racket came to the fore. But Mr Pawar had to wait for the high court's decision," he said.
Fadnavis said that in the matters related to Deshmukh, Thackeray hadn't conducted himself in a manner appropriate for the CM's office. "He hasn't spoken a word. Things like resignations should happen through him," he said, adding that he had been questioning the morality of the government, which was finally invoked in Deshmukh's resignation. "I wasn't given an appropriate answer when I presented the matter with all evidence. Instead, they wanted to investigate me. I'm happy that the court has accepted things that I have said. Now, we need to find out Waze's real handler," said the ex-CM.
In coalition governments that it has been part of since 1999, the NCP has so far asked three ministers in charge of the home department to quit. In the Congress-NCP governments, Chhagan Bhujbal had to go in the alleged Telgi stamp paper scam. He returned after the storm was over. Then RR Patil quit in the wake of the 26/11 terror attacks, which also saw the then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh go. Patil, too, returned later. Deshmukh became the third to resign after the high court-ordered CBI probe in graft allegations. It remains to be seen whether he, too, will return.
