Mumbai: The Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Raosaheb Danve has said that former deputy chief minister and the senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar can be arrested anytime in the alleged irrigation scam.
Mr Danve while speaking at the Atal Sankalp conference at Nigdi near Pune on Saturday in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, said, “The police have reached the doorsteps of Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam. Therefore, his condition is such that there is a sword hanging on his head and he can be arrested anytime.”
Meanwhile, in a statement, issued by the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative council, Dhananjay Munde said that the investigation is going on in irrigation scam since last four years. Mr Pawar has no role in the alleged scam.
Rebutting the allegations of the BJP, Mr. Munde said, “This is an attempt to vitiate political atmosphere since elections are approaching. Those who have had relations with the accused in naptha racket (related to fuel adulteration) and who used power to take benefits of government schools should not teach us, but look at themselves.”
Mr Pawar was among NCP ministers who were in-charge of the irrigation department at different times between 1999 and 2014 when the Congress and the NCP were part of the coalition government in the state. The scam, pegged at Rs 72,000 crore, relates to alleged corruption and irregularities in approval and execution of various irrigation projects in the state during the Congress-NCP rule.
