'Eyewash': BJP's Devendra Fadnavis on panel formed to probe charges against Maha home minister Anil Deshmukh

The Maha Vikas Aghadi-led government on Tuesday appointed a panel comprising retired Bombay High Court judge Kailas Chandiwal to probe the charges against Deshmukh, levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday criticised the Maharashtra government’s decision to appoint a single-member committee to probe the corruption allegations against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and the state’s home minister Anil Deshmukh.

Fadnavis, the leader of opposition in Maharashtra, tweeted that the constitution of the Chandiwal committee is “just of committee nature and not as a judicial commission”. (ANI file photo)

The Maha Vikas Aghadi-led government on Tuesday appointed a panel comprising retired Bombay High Court judge Kailas Chandiwal to probe the charges against Deshmukh, levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Fadnavis, the leader of opposition in Maharashtra, tweeted that the constitution of the Chandiwal committee is “just of committee nature and not as a judicial commission”. He also questioned how a retired judge, without any powers, will enquire against a sitting home minister. “We are of the view that appointing such a committee is merely an eyewash and does not solve any purpose, looking at the gravity and severity of the allegations," the former chief minister wrote on the microblogging site.

Chandiwal has been given a period of six months to submit its report to the MVA government. He has also been directed to find whether Singh submitted any evidence to prove whether home minister Deshmukh or any staff from his office committed any offence.

In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on March 20, Singh, who is currently the commandant general of the Home Guards, accused Deshmukh of ordering Mumbai police personnel to extort ₹100 crore per month from restaurants and bars in the city. However, Deshmukh denied such allegations and also threatened to file a defamation case against the former Mumbai top cop.

The Bombay high court, meanwhile, heard a plea filed by Singh seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Deshmukh, on Wednesday. A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni asked Singh that why he had not filed a police complaint first and added that without an FIR, the court cannot intervene or direct an independent agency like CBI to investigate the matter.