The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has put the Maha Yuti government on the mat for closing the case against Shiv Sena (Shinde) M.P. Ravindra Waikar.
The FIR filed against Waikar alleged that he had entered into a contract with the BMC after getting permission to run a sports facility at a prime plot in Jogeshwari. Incidentally, the permission was granted by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government when Waikar was in the undivided Shiv Sena. However, a criminal case was filed against him later when it was found that he was constructing a five-star hotel in gross violation of the terms of allotment of land.
Said a crime branch official: "The case against Waikar, his wife Manisha and his four close associates was closed because of incomplete information and misunderstanding.”
Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that the closure was nothing short of ````political blackmail going on in the state for the last 10 years." its
"The chronology of the BJP washing machine is that party leader Kirit Somaiya will level allegations, file a complaint. The probe agencies will then scare the concerned person and his family with raids and investigation. The person will have to join the BJP or its allies and then he will get a clean chit," he alleged.
He said the BJP has taken the state's politics to a new low.
"In the Lok Sabha polls, people have cleansed the politics to some extent, but the work is still incomplete. The cleanliness drive of the Maharashtra politics will be complete in the assembly polls," Sawant said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, "Waikar ran away and left us after getting scared of the probe agencies. Now he has got a clean chit. What else can you expect? The BJP should accept that it filed false cases to scare the opponents. NCP leader Praful Patel's properties that were attached were released. Even I was arrested over a false case. Why there is a case still against me...Its because I am not switching sides," he claimed
Waikar is currently the MP from Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency. He defeated the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar by a thin margin of 48 votes as per the results declared last month. His election is bein challenged by Kirtikar, whose father Gajanan was the sitting M.P.
Once a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray, Waikar joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena in March this year. He was a former standing committee chairman of the BMC, a four time corporator and MLA from Jogeshwari for four terms. He was minister of state for housing, higher and technical education between 2014 and 2019.
Waikar, Manisha, business partners Aasoo Nihlanai, Raj Lalchandani and Prithpal Bindra, and architect Arun Dubey had been booked on the charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy on the complaint filed by BMC sub-engineer Santosh Mandavkar. The case was initially registered at the Azad Maidan police station and the investigation was later transferred to the EOW.
(with inputs from PTI)
