Fadnavis gives Maria ‘prima facie’ clean chit

Mumbai's police commissioner Rakesh Maria finally got some relief in the controversy surrounding his London meeting with Lalit Modi.

After an action-packed week, Mumbai’s police commissioner Rakesh Maria finally got a breather on Wednesday after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis gave him a ‘prima facie’ clean chit. He also got support from the Shiv Sena, which is part of the ruling alliance in the state.

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Maria had submitted his clarification on the meeting with former IPL boss Lalit Modi to additional chief secretary (home) KP Bakshi, who in turn is learnt to have sent it to Fadnavis along with his remarks on Wednesday.

In his clarification, Maria had attached documents showing police records of his meeting with Modi along with a note to the anti-extortion cell about investigating the threat to the former IPL chief. Maria maintained he met Modi at a conference in London, but only after the latter’s lawyer insisted on a meeting claiming threat of life to the IPL chief and his family.

Meanwhile, Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Wednesday supported Maria and asked Fadnavis not to make the Mumbai police chief a sacrificial goat while his party protected Union minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje in the same controversy.

“What Modi has done with IPL may be an issue of contention, but the Mumbai police commissioner had no right to handcuff him and bring him back here or to Delhi when he was living in London with the permission of authorities,” said the editorial in Saamana. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is the editor of the newspaper.

The Sena mouthpiece also slammed former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, saying he had no importance even when he was running the (Congress-NCP) government and it would have not made any difference even if Maria would have informed Chavan.