No cases against Pawar: Pune cops

The Pune police has informed the Delhi police that there are no criminal cases against Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar. The information was sent as a reply to Delhi police’s letter dated March 9, in which they had sought details of criminal cases against Mr Pawar, if any. The Pune police had received an official communiqué from Delhi on Sunday. The faxed letter, received by the Pune police on March 9 with an outward number 2139/10-1/S.E.C, sought information from the cyber crime cell and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune police by 11 am on March 12. Accordingly, the commissioner of police, Pune had instructed the city team to immediately provide the relevant information of criminal cases, if any, against Mr Pawar. The Pune police, in their reply, said no such cases have been filed against Mr Pawar. Pune police commissioner Gulabrao Pol said, “We had received a fax from the deputy commissioner of police (protection) of Delhi police on Sunday asking if any cases were filed against Mr Pawar in the police stations under the Pune police commissionerate. As there is no such case, we mentioned the same in our reply and forwarded it through our cyber cell.” While the Delhi police’s query has raised many eyebrows, the Pune police issued an official statement clarifying that the information was sought in connection with the Supreme Court directives, which were issued while hearing a PIL against the security provided to Union ministers who have criminal cases registered against them. “The Delhi police is collecting information pertaining to Union ministers as per the SC’s directions,” an officer from the Pune police said. In the PIL filed in the SC, the petitioner has sought the apex court’s order to take action against those Union ministers who are enjoying police security despite having criminal cases against them.