Mumbai: Senior officers of the Navi Mumbai police are battling allegations that they failed to act on the Pawanraje Nimbalkar murder case. It was only after the CBI took over the probe that key arrests were made leading to the arrest of NCP MP Padamsinh Patil.
The CBI is expected to probe the role of senior IPS officers who were investigating the case in Navi Mumbai.
Nimbalkar was shot dead in Navi Mumbai in 2006 and the CBI took over the probe two years later after his family approached the high court, alleging that investigations were shoddy.
The CBI, while seeking Patil's custody, had told the court that the two other arrested accused - Mohan Shukla and Parasmal Jain had claimed that they had been ordered by Patil to eliminate Nimbalkar.
Patil has been booked under section 120 (b) for criminal conspiracy and 302 (for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
NCP chief Sharad Pawar is under increasing pressure to sack Patil who was once his right-hand man as the case has snowballed into a major embarrassment for the NCP.
The Congress hasn't said much, but with its alliance partner battling a scandal this is the party with a great performance in the Lok Sabha elections that stands to gain.
Patil, a relative of Pawar, was elected to the state assembly for seven consecutive terms from 1978 but was forced to take a backseat in 2004 after winning by a mere 484 votes. NCP replaced him with son Jagjitsingh in the state ministry.
A seven-term MLA for Osmanabad, he was handpicked by Pawar for plum ministries serving as a Cabinet minister for Home, Irrigation and Energy.
His first setback came in the form of a corruption scandal exposed by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare in 2005. The P B Sawant Committee indicted him for siphoning off farmers' money from the Terna Sugar Cooperative money meant for victims of Kargil and the Gujarat earthquake.
(With PTI inputs)