Plea filed in Bombay HC to book Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar for ‘extorting Rs 100 crore’ – India Today

A Mumbai-based lawyer has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court arguing that a case should be registered against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Transport Minister Anil Parab.

The petition has been filed by advocate Ratnakar Davare, who in his petition has requested the court to order a CBI probe into the allegations that Ajit Pawar asked police officers to collect Rs 100 crore for him through extortion.

Dismissed Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze, who is presently in judicial custody in the Antilia bomb scare case, in his letter that he had tried to submit to the NIA court had said that Darshan Ghodawat, an alleged close friend of Ajit Pawar, had asked him to collect Rs 100 crores from gutkha traders for Pawar.

In the said letter, which was not admitted by the court, Vaze also alleged that Transport Minister Anil Parab had asked him to meet SBUT officials and demand Rs 50 crores to stop an inquiry against them by the Mumbai Police.

According to the letter, Parab also asked Vaze to collect Rs 2 crore each from 50 blacklisted contractors of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The petition filed in the high court argues that the CBI should register cases against Ajit Pawar and Anil Parab to investigate the allegations levelled against them.

This development comes at a time when former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh is facing investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly asking Sachin Vaze and some other Mumbai Police officers to collect Rs 100 crores per month for him through extortion.

It is alleged that this money was primarily supposed to be collected by targeting bars and restaurants in Mumbai.
The ED has so far arrested Anil Deshmukh’s personal assistant Kundan Shinde and personal secretary Sanjeev Palande, while Deshmukh has filed a plea in Supreme Court seeking protection from any coercive action by the ED against him.

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