Pawar summons NCP leaders to Delhi, pressure mounts on Deshmukh

(Image: IANS)


 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Supremo Sharad Pawar has summoned Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and party chief Jayant Patil to Delhi on Sunday to discuss the fallout of the allegations against the party leader and Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

The issue of Maharashtra Police and state home department has become murkier since the day the letter of former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh was leaked to the media.

However, Anil Deshmukh said on Saturday that the threads of the investigation being carried out against Sachin Vaze in the SUV case are leading to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

While rejecting Singh’s allegations that the state home minister sought extortion money, Deshmukh alleged that Singh was levelling false allegations against him to save himself.

In a sensational twist to the SUV case, Param Bir Singh on Saturday hit out at Deshmukh by virtually alleging that the minister wanted his team member, arrested cop Sachin Vaze, to ‘collect’ Rs 100 crore per month from bars and hookah parlours.

Taking strong umbrage at Deshmukh’s remarks that Singh’s transfer as Commandant-General of Maharashtra Home Guards was not for administrative purposes but for “unpardonable lapses” by his team, the former Mumbai top cop shot off an eight-page missive to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, saying he was made a “scapegoat” for “extraneous and vindictive reasons”.