Maharashtra's Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday resigned from his post just hours after the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI probe into allegations of corruption and misconduct made by former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni said this was an "extraordinary" and "unprecedented" case that warranted an independent inquiry.
"Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has met the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, to tender his resignation," NCP leader Nawab Malik said.
"The CM is yet to accept his resignation," he added.
In his resignation letter to the CM, Deshmukh said he didn't find it "morally correct to continue as the home minister after Bombay High Court order."
"Deshmukh told the party he didn't wish to remain in the post after the high court order and party has requested to the CM to accept his resignation," Malik said.
Minutes after Deshmukh's resignation, the BJP demanded a fair investigation into the issue.
"The BJP expects that all the ramifications of this issue ought to be investigated fairly, properly and those involved must be brought to book," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Opposition BJP has been constantly pressuring the minister and ruling coalition government for the resignation of the former.
Several BJP bigwigs including State party chief Chandrakant Patil, Leaders of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis (Council) and Pravin Darekar, Sudhir Mungantiwar and others welcomed Deshmukh’s move to keep off the post to ensure an impartial probe.
"Truth will come out in the preliminary inquiry. It is improper for Deshmukh to continue as minister after the HC order. He should resign on moral grounds, face the probe and come back to the ministry if he is found to be innocent," Fadnavis said earlier on Monday.
On March 25, Singh filed a criminal public interest litigation seeking a CBI probe against Deshmukh.
In an unprecedented way, Singh, who was shunted out as Mumbai police chief after a fallout of the Antilla case, accused Deshmukh of using assistant police inspector and former “encounter specialist” Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore per month from bars.
Singh made the allegations in a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray after he was transferred to Home Guards
Vaze has been arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) for his alleged role in planting the explosives.
This is the second major setback for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the past three months with a minister compelled to quit the cabinet.
On Feb. 28, the Forest Minister Sanjay Rathod had quit amid a cloud over the death of a Tik-Tok star Pooja Chavan (22) in Pune on Feb. 7 after the BJP threatened to withdraw its members from a joint panel of the Shakti Bill and disrupt the legislature proceedings during the Budget Session in March.
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