Sanjay Raut had yesterday made sensational claims in a letter to M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who yesterday made sensational claims in a letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman, today said that he has all the evidence to back up his claims and would reveal them at the right time. Mr Raut had on Tuesday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate has been harassing him and his family after he refused to help in toppling the Maharashtra government. In an interview with NDTV, he alleged that there was a "criminal syndicate" involving the ED and some blackmailers like BJP's Kirti Soumya that he was going to "expose".
The ED and other central investigating agency officials "are now reduced to puppets of their political masters", he had said yesterday and added that the officials have even admitted that they have been "asked by their 'bosses' to 'fix' me."
In a warning to the Centre, the Sena MP said that there's no need to go to court for this as it is an entirely political issue and he will soon strike the last blow in this tussle between probe agencies and the BJP's political rivals. "We are discussing this within the party, and with NCP chief Sharad Pawar as well. What will happen now will be the last nail in the coffin," he said.
The Sena MP said that he is currently in Delhi, and will decide what to do next in a few days. "I am busy with elections, and am not even able to go home but they are harassing our people. This is not manliness, it's deceit with the people," he said.
Mr Raut claimed that ever since Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government two years back, the Centre has been trying to topple the state government, poach MLAs and impose President's rule in Maharashtra.
"After they failed completely in their plans, they have been targeting prominent leaders like me by threatening us and grilling us through central investigating agencies. In addition to me, they have also been harassing the Pawar and Thackeray families," he said.
He said that he has just informed the chairman of the Rajya Sabha as he is the custodian of the upper house and this is happening to a member. "This is an attempt to stifle my voice," he added.
On the investigating agencies allegedly going after vendors from his daughter's wedding and people who sold him a small piece of land in his birthplace, he said that it's not the job of the ED to investigate such small transactions, adding that the agencies were being used for political vendetta.
Mr Raut claimed that the central agencies are rounding up anyone they can find who could be bullied and threatened to say that he paid cash to them, over and above the agreement value.
He said that going after poor farmers to extract a statement just to frame him was not the ED's job when there are many big frauds they could be investigating.
"They helped big players like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi escape. Big industrialists have committed so many frauds but they pick up small farmers from villagers. This is not what the ED is supposed to do, this is torture. Four of the people who were picked up and forced to make statements against me are filing FIRs against the ED officers on how they were kidnapped," he said.