Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Anil Deshmukh over corruption allegation

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday slammed the Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh over corruption allegation and asked: "If Rs 100 crore was the target by him then what was the target by other ministers?"

Targeting Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that he has lost the moral authority to govern the state.

"I want to say to the son of Bala Saheb Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray that he has lost the moral authority to govern the state even for a day," Union Minister said here.

"If Rs 100 crore was the target by Home Minister (Maharashtra) then what was the target by other ministers," the Union Minister said while speaking to reporters in Patna today.

The allegation was made by the former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh who wrote a letter to Chief Minister mentioning that the Home Minister asked suspended Mumbai Police Officer Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore every month.

He also added that though it is the story of Maharashtra but the entire country's politics are affected by it.

Prasad also raised the question on the state government over the appointment of a suspended officer Sachin Waze in Mumbai Police.

"Sachin Waze was suspended for so many years appointed again in coronavirus period and the reason cited that many policemen are getting ill, in this period that is why he had been appointed. I want to ask on behalf of BJP that under whose pressure, Waze was reinstated. Is there any pressure of Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray's or Sharad Pawar," he said.

In his letter, Param Bir Singh, who has now been posted as Commandant General of Home Guards, said that he has been "made a scapegoat to divert attention from the actual wrongdoers".

Singh also alleged that Deshmukh had ordered to file a case of abetment to suicide in MP Mohan Delkar's death who was found dead in Mumbai on February 22 this year.

On Saturday, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh refuted all 'extortion allegations' made by Param Bir Singh in his letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

(ANI)

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