Shiv Sena attacks BJP over misuse of central agencies

Continuing its attack against the Centre over the cruise drugs seizure case of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Shiv Sena on Tuesday slammed the Central government, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) acts like it owns central investigation agencies, but it should not forget that in a democracy, owners do change

Continuing its attack against the Centre over the cruise drugs seizure case of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Shiv Sena on Tuesday slammed the Central government, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) acts like it owns central investigation agencies, but it should not forget that in a democracy, owners do change. The Sena mouthpiece Samaana added that the alleged Rs25-crore extortion bid is just the tip of the iceberg.

Continuing its attack against the Centre over the cruise drugs seizure case of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Shiv Sena on Tuesday slammed the Central government, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) acts like it owns central investigation agencies, but it should not forget that in a democracy, owners do change

“The BJP acts like it owns the central investigation agencies. It should not forget that in a democracy, owners do change. There are examples of it in history. The party should not forget that it is like any other political party. It should also remember that political power comes and goes,” the Sena mouthpiece said in Tuesday.

Leader of opposition and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has however said that the central agencies and its officers are being targeted by the leaders of the ruling parties to divert the attention from the corruption cases.

In a remark on the alleged extortion bid of Rs25 crore to let off Aryan Khan, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana asked how much bribe would have been offered to settle the seizure of 3,500kg heroin on Mundra port in Gujarat. “How much bribe amount was sought to settle the case of 3,500-kg heroin found at the Adani group-controlled Mundra port in Gujarat? This is a question that just have crossed the minds of the people. Nobody knew when that [heroin seizure] case was closed, but the Aryan Khan case is still going on,” the editorial said.

Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday targeted NCB officials over the payoff claims made by independent witness Prabhakar Sail and alleged that there is extortion and money laundering by NCB.

Devendra Fadnavis, leader of opposition in legislative Assembly, said that NCB officials are being targeted by the people who have been on the constitutional position and it is dangerous. “Ministers are targeting the investigating officers or witnesses in the key cases, which are under trial in courts. If this continues, it will be an attack on justice, jeopardising the cases. If there are any charges against the investigating officers, there could be an inquiry, but they cannot be targeted. The officers are being targeted by producing their personal information related to religion, by threatening them to send to jail,” he said.

Fadnavis said the officials are being targeted to divert the attention of the people from the corruption charges against the ministers and leaders of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. “There are charges of Rs1,000 crore earned by the leaders of ruling parties, the investigating agencies have found Rs190 crore during raids, softwares are being used for extortion. All this will come to the fore after the investigation by the agencies. The attempt to malign the officials from these agencies is to divert the attention from these corruption cases,” he added.