State minister linked to Pune woman’s suicide resigns

Sanjay Rathod

Maharashtra minister Sanjay Rathod, facing flak from the opposition BJP after being linked to a woman's death, on Sunday resigned from the state cabinet. Rathod made the announcement after submitting his resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the president of his Shiv Sena party.

"There has been a lot of dirty politics over the issue of the woman's death," Rathod told reporters, adding he has quit the ministry so that the truth can come out. Rathod, who holds the forest portfolio, was facing allegations of complicity in the death of Puja Chavan, 23, a resident of Beed, who was found dead in Pune on February 8, apparently after falling off the building in which she lived.

Talking to reporters after meeting the chief minister, Rathod said he had resigned to facilitate a free and fair probe. "Attempts were made to tarnish my image and destroy my reputation I had built after 30 years of social work. I was saying that let the probe happen before taking any decision. But the opposition threatened to disrupt the budget session," Rathod said.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis said the resignation wasn't enough and demanded an FIR be filed against him.

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