Anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania said in Mumbai on Wednesday that she would move the court and place all the evidence as well as documents she has already submitted to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar if Maharashtra Food & Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde does not resign within four days.
“Four days are enough to verify the documents I have provided. I will wait for four days, and if Munde does not resign, I will place my documents before the court. I have given all the evidence to Ajit Pawar and he has accepted it. He said that they want to verify the authenticity of the evidence,” Anjali Damania said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Food & Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde was in Delhi on Wednesday where he met Union Food & Civil Supplies Minister Pralhad Joshi.
“If Chief Minister Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar feel that I am guilty, they must ask me to resign. I will resign if they ask me to do so,” Dhananjay Munde said in Delhi.
Yet, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut alleged that Munde was in Delhi on Wednesday to lobby for saving his ministerial post.
While Dhananjay Munde is in Delhi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is also on a three-day visit to Delhi starting Wednesday, leading to speculation that a decision regarding Dhananjay Munde‘s resignation from his ministerial post could be made in Delhi.
However, Munde denied Sanjay Raut’s allegation and said, “I did not know Chief Minister Fadnavis would come to Delhi. I came to know about it only after I reached Delhi. I only raised the issue of the problems of the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies with Pralhad Joshi,” Munde said.
While others were sceptical about Munde‘s resignation, Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA from Beed district Sandeep Kshirsagar alleged on Wednesday that Munde’s resignation “is impossible” because he is close to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well as NCP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
“Valmik Karad is special to Dhananjay Munde. Similarly, Dhananjay Munde is special to Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. That is why Dhananjay Munde’s resignation is impossible. No matter how much evidence Anjali Damania submits to Ajit Pawar, it will be of no use,” Sandeep Kshirsagar tweeted on his X account.
Munde has been facing demands that he must resign after his close aide Valmik Karad was arrested in the Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s murder case in Beed district.
In a related development, activist Ketan Tirodkar, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court urging the court to monitor the ongoing investigation in the Santosh Deshmukh murder case.
Tirodkar urged the court to direct the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to file a periodic progress report in the case. Yet another plea before the court sought a direction for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to initiate a probe.
The plea also urged the court to direct the Election Commission of India to scrutinise the election candidate affidavit filed by Dhananjay Munde, alleging that Munde did not disclose in his affidavit that he is the director of several companies.
The plea stated that documents accessed from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show that both Munde and his murder accused aide Valmik Karad are co-directors of a few companies whose financial transactions need to be investigated but were not being done by the SIT.