Honey trap was used to pull down MVA govt, claims Cong’s Wadettiwar

The honey-trap scandal concerns several ministers and top officials being reportedly filmed in a compromising position at a luxury hotel in Nashik

MUMBAI: For the last one week, the Congress has been raising the issue of a honey-trap scam in Maharashtra to which as many as 72 politicians, bureaucrats and former officials have allegedly fallen prey. On Saturday, senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar claimed that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was also pulled down with the help of the same honey trap. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, however, on Friday stated that no complaints had been received about any honey trap.

Mumbai, India - June 24, 2019: Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar was appointed as the new Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Monday, June 24, 2019. (Photo by Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times) (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

“Although the CM denied it, the government and the opposition have a lot of information about the honey trap,” alleged Wadettiwar. “We are keeping mum because we don’t want to destroy anyone’s career.” The former leader of the opposition implied that the honey trap dated back several years. “It was because of the same CD of video recordings of honey-trap victims that the Eknath Shinde government came to power and the then MVA government was pulled down,” he said. “It is a serious issue.”

In June 2022, the MVA government collapsed following a rebellion in the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. Shinde walked out with 40 other MLAs and declared support to the BJP. He was appointed chief minister in the next government.

Wadettiwar said that members of the bureaucracy too had been trapped. “Many IAS officers, serving and retired, are involved; big shots are involved,” he claimed. “I won’t say more, but we will reveal everything at the appropriate time. We have very strong evidence.”

Wadettiwar chose to make the allegations days after former state Congress president Nana Patole displayed a pen drive in the Maharashtra assembly, claiming to have recordings of the alleged honey trap scam which is connected to people in Mantralaya, Thane and Nashik. He also claimed that the trapped officials were being blackmailed to leak confidential state documents.

State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Saturday claimed that “the threads” of the scandal “lead all the way to the ₹20,000-crore corruption scam in the Samruddhi Mahamarg project”. “Efforts are being made to suppress this scandal,” he said.

On Friday, Fadnavis ridiculed Patole’s claims, saying that a complaint had been filed by a woman against a deputy collector which was subsequently withdrawn. “An atmosphere is being created that current and former ministers are involved in a honey trap,” he told the assembly on Friday. “There is no complaint, no evidence, and no sitting or ex-ministers were found involved in any honey trap.”

“We had received a complaint of this sort from Nashik against a deputy district collector. The complainant was a woman but later she withdrew her complaint,” he added.