After lunch meet, Dhas makes fresh allegation against Munde

At a press conference held at Ashti, Beed, Dhas alleged a ₹342 crore purchase scam took place in the agriculture department in 2024 when Munde was minister in Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government

Strap: Alleges dept led by Munde made purchases of over ₹300 crore bypassing govt orders; seeks SIT probe

Mumbai, India - August 17, 2022: MLA Dhananjay Munde (C) enters Vidhan Bhavan during the first day of the monsoon session of Maharashtra Legislature Assembly in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, August 17, 2022. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

Mumbai: After attempting to establish NCP minister Dhananjay Munde’s connection with the murder case of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas recently made a surprise move by meeting Munde over lunch for several hours, drawing sharp criticism from the Opposition. The peace offering was clearly short-lived, as on Thursday, Dhas assumed his old avatar and furnished a fresh batch of allegations on Munde.

At a press conference held at Ashti, Beed, Dhas alleged a ₹342 crore purchase scam took place in the agriculture department in 2024 when Munde was minister in Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government. He asked the government to institute a probe by a special investigation team (SIT), adding that he will make similar pleas to involve agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and the Anti-corruption bureau. He also demanded Munde be dropped from the state cabinet.

The corpus was spent, said Dhas, for purchasing nano urea and agriculture equipment despite a government order (GR) mandating that farmers be given direct cash benefit to purchase equipment or other material. “Yet, if purchases are needed, the proposal should be cleared by a committee under chief secretary of the state, which was ignored,” Dhas said.

He added, the purchases were made also ignoring then agriculture commissioner Praveen Gedam’s insistence on direct transactions to farmers.

Dhas told HT: “Two GRs issued in 2017 and 2018 underline that direct benefit transfers cannot be avoided. If there is a pressing need, it must be sanctioned by a committee of chief secretary, followed by a final nod by the CM. Munde bypassed the chief secretary and got a go-ahead from the CM directly. He made purchases of ₹342 crore, of which ₹142 crore was given to Punjabrao Deshmukh Agriculture University to make part of the purchases. Munde and his aides pocketed over ₹200 crore.”

When HT reached out to Munde to respond to Dhas’s fresh allegations, his spokesperson Prashant Joshi said: “Munde saheb can’t speak for more than two minutes as he is suffering from Bell’s Palsy. Dhas has made allegations similar to those made by activist Anjali Damania recently.”

On Wednesday, Damania had alleged that battery sprayer pumps and solar light traps worth ₹200 crore were purchased by the agriculture department between September 23 and 30, 2024, without the permission of the state cabinet.

Munde’s office denied Damania’s claimed saying the allegations were made based on “half-baked information”.