Whose favourite was Sachin Vaze, asks Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, calls Anil Deshmukh 'accidental' home minister

Expressing his thoughts on the ongoing controversy through his weekly column Rokhthok in Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, Raut claimed that Deshmukh got the home minister’s post after other senior NCP leaders such as Dilip Walse Patil and Jayat Patil refused to take up the role.

As the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh is facing heat over allegedly running an extortion racket in the state with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding his resignation from the cabinet, Deshmukh’s ally and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday called the NCP leader an ‘accidental home minister’.

Raut also said that a home minister should speak less and facing cameras and ordering enquiries is not his job. (HT file photo)

Expressing his thoughts on the ongoing controversy through his weekly column Rokhthok in Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, Raut claimed that Deshmukh got the home minister’s post after other senior NCP leaders such as Dilip Walse Patil and Jayat Patil refused to take up the role. “That is why Sharad Pawar selected Anil Deshmukh for the post,” Raut added.

He said that Maha-Vikas Aghadi-led government in Maharashtra did not have damage control machinery as no senior leader came forward to refute Param Bir Singh's claim that Deshmukh asked him to collect ₹100 crore per month from the bars and restaurants of the city.

Raut in his weekly column also questioned suspended Mumbai Police assistant inspector Sachin Vaze’s role in the extortion racket. “If a junior officer like Sachin Waze was running a (money) collection racket from the Mumbai police commissioner’s office, why was the home minister not aware of it? Whose favourite was he?” he said asking who gave so much power to him. Vaze is the prime accused in the Antilia bomb scare case and is also facing investigation in Thane-based businessman Manuskh Hiran’s death- whose SUV, laden with gelatin sticks, was found near Antilia- which is industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence.

Raut also said that a home minister should speak less and facing cameras and ordering enquiries is not his job. “The (home minister’s) job is not only for accepting salutes but for giving a strong leadership. How can one forget that strong leadership requires honesty,” the Sena leader added.

Meanwhile, NCP leader and Maharashtra minority development minister Nawab Malik on Sunday reacted to Raut’s editorial piece by saying that the shortcomings brought forward in the article should be taken in a positive manner. “There should have been strictness in handling the department (police) as some officers were acting as per their own will,” Malik told ANI.

(With agency inputs)