Anil Deshmukh Accuses Devendra Fadnavis of Plotting His Arrest with Central Agencies

GG News Bureau
Mumbai, 10th Sept. Former Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday alleged that state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is trying to plot his arrest using central agencies.

Deshmukh took to X to assert that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against him at Fadnavis’s behest, concerning a four-year-old incident.

Deshmukh claimed that the FIR is related to accusations that he pressured a Jalgaon police officer to act against BJP leader Girish Mahajan during his tenure as Home Minister.

He alleged that Fadnavis is trying to arrange a raid on him and secure his arrest, accusing Fadnavis and the central agencies of lowering the standards of Maharashtra politics.

The CBI’s FIR, registered last week, involves Deshmukh, special public prosecutor Pravin Pandit Chavan, and two police officials. They are accused of conspiring to frame top BJP leaders in a false case from 2020. This case originated from a pen drive provided by Fadnavis, who was in the opposition at the time. The pen drive contained videos suggesting that Chavan, lawyer Vijay Patil, and Deshmukh were involved in a scheme to frame Mahajan, now a minister.

The complaint, initially lodged by Patil in 2020, alleged that he was tortured in Pune in 2018 to force his resignation and to take over the Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj Limited. Fadnavis provided over 100 hours of video footage to substantiate claims of a conspiracy targeting BJP leaders. The case was subsequently transferred from the CID to the CBI for investigation.

Deshmukh has dismissed the case as “baseless” and pointed out that he is already dealing with a separate CBI investigation into alleged corruption and a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). His statements add to the ongoing political tensions surrounding the high-profile investigation.