NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday told reporters that he will be discussing if Anil Deshmukh will be removed as home minister with Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Pawar's comments came in the backdrop of former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh's letter to CM where he claimed Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh wanted police officers to collect ₹100 crore monthly from bars and hotels.
Talking to reporters in Delhi, Pawar suggested that Thackeray will take a decision in this matter and also action against Deshmukh.
He also said that allegations leveled by Singh against Deshmukh are serious and require an in-depth probe.
Pawar said neither the chief minister nor the state home minister were responsible for reinstatement of police officer Sachin Waze in the police force last year.
The NCP chief said he has spoken to Thackeray regarding Singh's letter. "I would suggest to Uddhav Thackeray to seek former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro's help for looking into the claims made by Param Bir Singh," he added.
Pawar said Singh made the allegations after his transfer on March 17 to the Home Guards.
The NCP supremo said there is no impact on the MVA government because of Singh's allegations. Efforts are on to destabilise the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra but they will prove futile, he added.
In the eight-page letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Singh alleged that Deshmukh used to call police officers to his official residence and give them a "collection target" from bars, restaurants and other establishments.
The allegations were made a day after Deshmukh had said that Param Bir Singh was moved out as Mumbai Police Commissioner so that cases pertaining to Waze were probed without obstruction.
In the letter, Param Bir Singh, who has now been posted as Commandant General of Home Guards, said that he has been "made a scapegoat to divert attention from the actual wrongdoers".
In the eight-page letter, Singh has complained of "political interference" by Deshmukh.He said the case about a car with explosives having been found near Antilia, the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, was being investigated by the ATS and the NIA and all his officers rendered "all necessary assistance for a free and fair investigation".
Singh said that at one of the briefing sessions in the wake of the Antilia incident in mid-March 2021, he had told Thackeray about "several misdeeds and malpractices being indulged into by the Home Minister".
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