MLA who leaked audit report warns against witch-hunt

Left with no option but to table the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the ongoing budget session, the state government is still clueless how it landed in the hands of a senior Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Nagpur, Devendra Fadnavis.

Left with no option but to table the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the ongoing budget session, the state government is still clueless how it landed in the hands of a senior Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Nagpur, Devendra Fadnavis.

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Sources in the government said the police and administration had started investigations the day the report became public last week, but are yet to reach any conclusion. Home minister RR Patil officially announced a police probe into the leak on Friday.

Fadnavis said from Nagpur that he would face any inquiry, but remained tightlipped about those who gave him the report on a compact disk. "I will welcome the police whenever they visit me. But let me warn them against pressure tactics. They cannot maim me or my party. I have in my possession some other parts of the CAG report and I will table them in the Assembly if the government does not table it next week."

The report, presented by Fadnavis to the legislature even before the government tabled it, has nailed many sitting ministers and former CMs and ministers for irregularities in land allotments.

Though the ministers named in the report do not want the government to table it, the state has decided to present the findings after state advocate general Darius Khambatta advised against rejecting and returning the report, on Friday night.

Fadnavis said it would be interesting to know on which day the report is tabled because the session will end next Friday. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had promised to table the report on April 16, but is unlikely to do so since he will be in New Delhi on Monday to meet the prime minister and Union home minister.

It has been a practice to table the CAG report on the last day of the session. Sources in the government expect the norm to be followed this year too.