‘Central probe agencies misusing power': Sharad Pawar to meet PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah soon

Pune: Veteran Maharashtra politician and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over alleged misuse of power by the central probe agencies. The NCP supremo said this in the wake of the release of former Maharashtra Home minister and party leader Anil Deshmukh in a money laundering case. Pawar said that he wants to prevent anyone from going through a similar situation in the future.

The NCP chief also termed the arrest of Deshmukh and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut as an example of "misuse of power" by investigating agencies. Speaking to media persons in Pune after Deshmukh was released on bail, the NCP chief said, "The best example of how the agency can be misused is the arrest of Anil Deshmukh, Sanjay Raut and many co-workers."

Deshmukh was released from Arthur Road jail in Mumbai on Wednesday. He was released after formalities for his release were completed and sureties furnished.

"Whatever the order of the court has come, it is going to be appropriate to consider and make changes if the people present in today`s government have good sense. The court has clearly said in its order that there is no evidence against him. The court has clearly said in its order that the accusations were made of about Rs 100 crores but in the chargesheet, the figure was reduced to Rs 1 crore," Pawar said.

He further said that Deshmukh has finally got justice. "So it is clear that there has been an abuse of power and a dutiful and cultured person has been put in jail for almost 13 months. Today finally the judiciary has given justice. But the Prime Minister and Home Minister should think about the people who have created this situation," the NCP chief said.

Pawar said that he will meet the Prime Minister and the Home Minister so that the torture some of his co-workers had to endure should be prevented in future. "After gathering some more information about the agencies involved in this case, I and some of my colleagues will meet the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and talk about it. Our effort will be to prevent such a situation in future as our co-workers had suffered a lot," he further said.

On the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Pawar also said that his party is working on what changes can be brought in this law and he also plans to raise the issue of taking its review in the Parliament. Deshmukh advocate Aniket Nikam said CBI had moved another application yesterday for extension of stay on order granting him bail. 

According to the conditions imposed by the court, Deshmukh cannot leave the jurisdiction of Mumbai without the prior approval of the trial court and must cooperate with the investigation. Anil Deshmukh was granted conditional bail by the Bombay High Court on December 12 on a bond of Rs 1 lakh but the CBI filed an application for a stay order to challenge it in Supreme Court which was granted by Bombay HC. 

A stay of 10 days was granted, and later it was extended till December 27. On Tuesday the plea for further extension days was rejected by the Bombay High Court. The CBI had filed a corruption case against the NCP leader.