The BJP on Tuesday sharpened its attack on the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, terming it a government “of extortion, by extortion and for extortion” following the accusations made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Speaking at a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had lost the moral right to govern.
Mr. Prasad said it was the first time in the country's history that a police commissioner had levelled such a charge against a home minister.
“When the target of one minister is ₹100 crore, how much will it be of the remaining ministers,” asked Mr. Prasad. “A khela (game) is going on in Maharashtra. What’s happening in the State is not vikas (development), it is vasuli (extortion),” he added.
Countering Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar’s defence of the MVA government at a presser on Monday, Mr. Prasad said the former political credibility had taken a hit and that he was forced to speak a patent falsehood for defending his party colleague and State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Singh had written to Mr. Thackeray alleging that the Mr Deshmukh had asked suspended police officer Sachin Vaze, currently in custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and other police officers to collect ₹100 crore monthly, including ₹50 crore to ₹60 crore from bars and restaurants in Mumbai. Mr. Deshmukh has denied these allegations.
The NIA is probing Vaze's alleged role in placing an explosives-laden SUV outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence on February 25.
The SUV was in possession of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, who was found dead in a creek near Mumbai. The probe into the death of Hiran was also handed over to the NIA.