Mumbai: Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday claimed that a conspiracy was hatched by the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) regime in the state to arrest him in false cases "not just once but four times".
Mr Fadnavis, who was the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly during the MVA rule, was responding to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh's allegations that there was an attempt to implicate him in various cases earlier.
"The claims made by Parambir Singh regarding attempts to arrest me and BJP leaders are real. Such an attempt was made during the MVA government. The former Mumbai Police chief has narrated only one incident, but they tried to arrest me not once but four times. A conspiracy was hatched to arrest me by making false cases," Mr Fadnavis said at a press conference.
"We also gave video evidence of this to the CBI. Even today, we have a lot of video evidence. During the MVA rule, some officers were given the 'contract' to put many of our leaders like me, Girish Mahajan, Praveen Darekar in jail," the senior BJP leader said.
Mr Fadnavis claimed that while some officers took the 'contract', they could not act accordingly as many of their colleagues refused to cooperate.
Earlier, ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh alleged that former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had exerted pressure on him to arrest not only Mr Fadnavis but also then Urban Development Minister and current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with some other BJP leaders during the MVA government.
He revealed that meetings were held at the NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar's Silver Oak residence and also at Matoshree, the residence of Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, where instructions were allegedly given to arrest Mr Fadnavis, Mr Shinde and a few BJP leaders.
"During the MVA government, attempts were made to arrest Devendra Fadnavis in connection with an old land embezzlement case in Thane. The case was investigated by the then Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sardar Patil, who was receiving direct instructions from Sanjay Pandey (former Maharashtra director general of police). Sanjay Pandey was being instructed by Anil Deshmukh, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray. An attempt was made to arrest not only me but also Devendra Fadnavis in that case," Parambir Singh claimed.
Further, Singh alleged that an attempt was made to 'trap' then Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde also.
"Sanjay Pandey had instructed Sardar Patil to arrest him. This means that the then Chief Minister tried to arrest his ministers," he said.
"The meeting was held at Silver Oak, Sharad Pawar's residence, where Pawar, Deshmukh, Anil Gote and P.P. Chavan were present. In that meeting, Deshmukh pressurised me to take action against the opposition. However, I refused, saying that I would not file a false case against anyone.
"A similar meeting was held at Thackeray's residence, Matoshree when Deshmukh was also present. He pressurised me to arrest the former leader of opposition in the legislative council Praveen Darekar in a bank-related case. I told them that the matter has been investigated and the case has been closed. So I will not take action against anyone again," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)