Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 5: Within hours of the Bombay High Court ordering a CBI probe into the extortion charges on Monday, the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigned citing “moral grounds.”
In a major fallout of the two-month old incident of an explosive-laden vehicle found parked near the Mumbai residence of the industrialist Mukesh Ambani, the High Court directed the CBI to probe the charges leveled against Deshmukh by the former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accusing him of running the extortion racket with the help of the police to collect about Rs 100 crore per month from restaurants, bars and other public joints.
The High Court gave the CBI 15 days to complete the preliminary investigations into the charges giving it liberty to proceed further in its own way if any prima facie truth was found in the allegations.
“I don’t have the moral right to continue in office after the court order. I have decided to quit. Kindly relieve me from my post,” said the resignation letter of Deshmukh, who belongs to Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a member of the Shiv Sena-led coalition ruling Maharashtra. Deshmukh went to hand over the letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after Pawar gave his green signal, NCP leader and minister Nawab Malik said.
Dilip Walse Patil, a former Speaker and seven-time MLA, and one of the senior most lawmakers in Maharashtra who started his career as personal assistant to Pawar, is likely to take over as home minister. Before Deshmukh, Walse Patil was believed to had been sounded by Pawar for the home minister’s portfolio at the time of the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministry but had declined the offer.
Deshmukh had for weeks resisted calls for his resignation, saying he had done nothing wrong. His party boss Sharad Pawar had given him a clean chit and after several meetings, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena had also fallen in line despite visible strain in the alliance.
Singh had told the court last week that Deshmukh replaced him because he had complained to Uddhav Thackeray listing several allegations against the minister, including extortion and illegal transfers.
The former Mumbai police chief first made the allegations in an explosive letter to the Chief Minister. The letter emerged just after Deshmukh told reporters that Singh was removed because of “unpardonable mistakes” in the Ambani bomb scare investigation.
In retaliation, Singh went public with his letter to the Chief Minister detailing allegations against the state Home Minister.
Deshmukh, the former top cop said, had asked police officers, including Sachin Vaze — arrested by the National Investigation Agency in the Ambani bomb scare – to collect ₹100 crore each month from bars and restaurants.
The petition also accused Deshmukh of corruption in police transfers and postings, based on allegations by an IPS officer, Rashmi Shukla.
With Deshmukh out of the office, the BJP immediately set the target on Thackeray demanding his resignation on “moral grounds.” Soon after Deshmukh’s resignation, the BJP attacked the chief minister saying his “conspicuous silence” was raising questions and he had lost the moral authority to govern.
The Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said he was happy that Deshmukh has quit, adding there will be many “shocking revelations” in the CBI probe. Reacting to the development, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the BJP expected that all the ramifications of this issue ought to be investigated fairly, properly and those involved must be brought to book.
“This is not Maha Vikas Aghadi but Maha Vasooli (extortion) Aghadi. Anil Deshmukh has resigned on moral grounds — these are big words. Uddhav Thackeray didn’t say anything…Deshmukh defended himself. Where are your morals Uddhavji? Will we hear about your morals?” Prasad said.
