'Conspiracies were hatched to arrest me in false cases': Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis

NEW DLEHI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has alleged that during the tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, a "contract" was issued to certain officials to frame him and other BJP leaders in false cases . Speaking to reporters in Nagpur on Saturday, Fadnavis claimed that the Uddhav Thackeray-led administration attempted to imprison him and other BJP leaders, but their efforts were thwarted by honest officials who refused to file false cases.

Fadnavis's remarks came in response to a question regarding former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh 's accusation that former home minister Anil Deshmukh pressured him to file false cases against specific BJP leaders. "What he (Singh) said about efforts being made to arrest me and other BJP leaders is completely true. He only talked about one incident, but there are four such incidents wherein conspiracies were hatched to arrest me in false cases," Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis further added, "However, we were able to expose those conspiracies at that time. We also gave video evidence of those to the CBI and we have a lot of video evidence today also." He claimed that during the MVA government, a "supari" (contract) was given to specific officials to imprison him, Girish Mahajan, Pravin Darekar, and several other leaders, but the plan failed due to the integrity of many officials.

Recently, Fadnavis and Anil Deshmukh have been engaged in a heated exchange of words. Deshmukh accused Fadnavis of exerting pressure as the then opposition leader to frame key politicians, including the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, while Deshmukh was the home minister in the MVA government. Deshmukh resigned as home minister in 2021 following accusations from Param Bir Singh that he had set a target to collect Rs 100 crore monthly from bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

Earlier this week, Deshmukh alleged that Fadnavis tried to protect Param Bir Singh from arrest by encouraging him to make allegations against Deshmukh to destabilize the MVA government. Both Fadnavis and Singh have denied the claims made by the senior NCP (SP) leader.

(With inputs from agencies)