Maharashtra polls: Supriya Sule questions misuse of probe agencies
A controversy erupted after a book quoted that Chhagan Bhujbal left Sharad Pawar faction and joined Ajit Pawar in 2023 to avoid investigation by the Enforcement Directorate
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader and MP Supriya Sule attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and again questioned the misuse of probe agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and against leaders of the Opposition.
A controversy erupted after Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book 2024: The Election that Surprised India, quoted Chhagan Bhujbal, NCP leader, that he left Sharad Pawar faction and joined Ajit Pawar in 2023 to become part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Mahayuti to avoid investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.
“I have spoken in Parliament on numerous occasions about the misuse of central agencies. Rival parties are being broken up by an invisible power in an unconstitutional way,” she said.
As many as 95 per cent of the cases registered by the ED and Income Tax (I-T) were against opposition leaders, she said, adding, “BJP forms governments by putting them in a ‘washing machine’.” Even women leaders were not spared, Sule said. “Not one day, two days but for five days, the I-T conducted raids on Rajni Indulkar, Nita Patil and Vijaya Patil at the behest of the invisible power,” she claimed.
“I have seen what the families of Bhujbal, Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik and Sanjay Raut had to go through. Devendra Fadnavis and the invisible power should give an answer to this,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bhujbal denied that he joined the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state to avoid investigation by the ED, and also said he had never made any such admission. The case against him had been closed when he was part of the previous government and he and his colleagues sided with the BJP to ensure speedy development in their constituencies, he said.
“I have not read the book. I think it is a deliberate attempt to divert attention. We are in the middle of assembly elections. After the elections, I will consult my lawyers and take action if anything wrong has been attributed to me,” he told reporters in Nashik. “My case was closed when I was in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. I deny what is being attributed to me in the media,’’ Bhujbal added.
Bhujbal was arrested in an alleged money laundering case related to the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi. He was granted bail in 2018.
(With Agency Inputs)
