Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde on Wednesday accused state Lokayukta Justice M.L. Tahaliyani of acting under pressure from the state government.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde on Wednesday accused state Lokayukta Justice M.L. Tahaliyani of acting under pressure from the state government. Mr Munde claimed that the clean chit given by the Lokayukta to minister Eknath Khadse in a bribery case proves it.
In its order passed on May 27, the Lokayukta has said that there was no material to show involvement of Mr Khadse in the bribery case involving his alleged personal assistant Gajanan Patil.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested Patil outside Mantralaya (state secretariat) last month for allegedly demanding a Rs 30-crore bribe from Mumbai-based entrepreneur Ramesh Jadhav in a land allotment matter. The Lokayukta heard the complainant and senior ACB officials on May 27, before passing the order the same day. “At least 12 recordings of the conversation between the complainant (Jadhav) and Patil were made,” the Lokayukta report said.
“The transcription doesn’t indicate that either revenue minister Eknath Khadse or any of his employees were involved in the alleged demand made by the accused Gajanan Patil,” the Lokayukta has said.
Mr Munde claimed that the order passed by the Lokayukta proves that he is working under pressure from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“If the government had already decided to give a clean chit to Mr Khadse without any investigation, why was the farcical inquiry held ” he said.
“In the last one-and-a-half years, there have been several allegations of corruption against the women and child welfare minister, social justice minister and food and civil supply minister. But the CM has not taken any action and given all of them a clean chit without holding any inquiry against them. Now a similar thing is happening in the case of Mr Khadse,” the Opposition leader said.
The state government has initiated an inquiry by a retired judge into the allegations of purchase of MIDC land against Mr Khadse.
Mr Munde said that that the inquiry into the land deal is also going to be a “farce”.
