Nagpur: Former Maharashtra home minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday alleged Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was trying to get him arrested with the help of central agencies.
In a post on X, Mr Deshmukh claimed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently filed an FIR against him in a four-year-old incident at the behest of the senior BJP leader.
Mr Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio in the Mahayuti government, dismissed the NCP (SP) leader's allegations and maintained Mr Deshmukh was trying to gain sympathy for himself.
"It has been alleged that four years ago when I was the home minister of Maharashtra, I pressured a Jalgaon police officer to take action against BJP leader Girish Mahajan," Mr Deshmukh said.
"As per my information, Fadnavis is trying to get a raid conducted on me and get me arrested. I want to tell Devendra Fadnavis, who with the help of Delhi (Centre) and ED-CBI has brought Maharashtra politics to a shallow level, 'Devendra Fadnavis, I am waiting for my arrest'," asserted the opposition leader, striking a defiant note.
Asked about the allegations, the deputy CM told reporters in Nagpur that Deshmukh was engaging in a petty attempt to gain sympathy for himself.
"The case (in Jalgaon) was filed against him based on a statement issued by an SP-rank police officer. The officer claimed Deshmukh had pressured him to file a false case against BJP leader Girish Mahajan. Deshmukh (then-home minister) even tried invoking charges under MCOCA (a stringent anti-organised crime law) against Mahajan. He should tender an apology to Mahajan for trying to destroy his life," Mr Fadnavis emphasised.
The CBI has registered an FIR against Mr Deshmukh, the then-special public prosecutor Pravin Pandit Chavan, and two police officials for alleged conspiracy to frame top state BJP leaders in a false case in 2020, officials said last week.
The CBI lodged the case after a two-year preliminary enquiry, which originated from a pen drive handed over to the then-Maharashtra assembly speaker by Mr Fadnavis, who was in the opposition in 2020, they said.
The "pen drive bomb" contained videos purportedly showing Chavan allegedly conspiring with trustee of Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj and lawyer Vijay Patil, and Deshmukh to frame BJP leader Mahajan, who is now a minister.
In 2020, a case was registered based on a complaint from Patil, who had alleged that in 2018, he was taken to a hotel in Pune where he was tortured by unknown persons who forced him to resign along with other trustees and told him that Mahajan wanted to take over Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj Ltd, a cooperative educational institute.
Mr Fadnavis submitted video recordings of over 100 hours in the pen drive to suggest that the case was part of a conspiracy to target BJP leaders. The case was first handed over to the state CID and later to the CBI for investigation.
Mr Deshmukh has termed the case as "baseless".
The former home minister is already facing a CBI case for alleged corruption and another case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for money laundering.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)