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Public prosecutor says voice in video not his after Fadnavis claims MVA hatching conspiracies to target political opponents
Pune: The public prosecutor on Tuesday refuted the allegations levelled against him by former chief minister of Maharashtra and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of conspiring to “fix” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Girish Mahajan and others
Pune: The public prosecutor on Tuesday refuted the allegations levelled against him by former chief minister of Maharashtra and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of conspiring to “fix” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Girish Mahajan and others.
During the assembly session, Fadnavis alleged that public prosecutor Pravin Chavan was instructing two senior police officers in Pune to fix Mahajan in a 2018 case. Chavan claimed that video recording referred by Fadnavis was “doctored”.
Speaking on law and order in the state assembly, Fadnavis submitted a pen drive containing “proof” to deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal.
Fadnavis claimed the pen driver comprised video recordings running into 125 hours, showing how conspiracies were hatched by the police and members of the MVA (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) to frame BJP leaders, including himself, in false cases at the office of special public prosecutor Chavan’s office
The two persons Fadnavis repeatedly mentioned besides Chavan, who is involved in high-profile cases like Pune-based builder Deepak Sakharam Kulkarni, famously known as DSK, were Pournima Gaikwad, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 4 of Pune police, and Sushma Chavan, assistant commissioner of police, Swargate division.
Fadnavis portrayed public prosecutor Chavan as a lawyer who coached Pune police into making false cases against Girish Mahajan, Anil Deshmukh, and tried to stop the investigation into Nawab Malik. He claimed in his speech that there was over 150 hours of video recording that shows the public prosecutor in cahoots with Pune police officers to plan political and legal hackjobs on members of BJP.
BJP’s Mahajan was booked in a case of extortion, forgery, and various other charges for allegedly trying to overtake a cooperative organisation in Muktainagar, Jalgaon. Fadnavis pointed out that the allegations were of Jalgaon, but the case was registered in Pune. In another lacuna pointed out by him, he mentioned that the FIR in the case accused Mahajan of being in Pune on the day when he was not. The timeline was changed in the FIR at a later stage, according to him.
While the three persons mentioned in Fadnavis’s claims did not respond, Chavan said the video was of him, but voice was of someone else.
“He (Fadnavis) has managed someone from the office to get the video, but the voice is not mine. I have met Anil Gote in my office yesterday (Monday) but he has been coming for official reasons. His requirement was legal advice in a case against him in Pune. I did not show any files. He showed me some files, but I told him I cannot take it up at the time. Anil Deshmukh related claims are wrong as he is in jail now and I have never been to jail to meet him or ever met him. So are the claims of Ajit Pawar since I have never met him,” Chavan told a TV channel.
The lawyer is purported also seen claiming that NCP chief Sharad Pawar wants to finish Fadnavis and other BJP leaders (politically) and Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey was given the task. In one of the videos, lawyer met Gote, former MLA and BJP rival, to talk about conspiring against Fadnavis.
Fadnavis has demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) in the claims he has made and has also provided some of the videos he was referring to, to news channels. He invoked involvement of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the cases against Chhagan Bhujbal, IPC officer Rashmi Shukla, and Nawab Malik.
