Bid to arrest me at Fadnavis' behest: Maharashtra ex-minister Anil Deshmukh

Former Maharashtra home minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday claimed that state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was trying to get him arrested with the help of central agencies.

In a post on X, Deshmukh also claimed an FIR has been filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the behest of BJP leader Fadnavis in a four-year-old incident.

“It has been alleged that four years back, when I was the home minister of Maharashtra, I pressured a Jalgaon police officer to take action against BJP leader Girish Mahajan,” he said.

“As per my information, Devendra Fadnavis is trying to get a raid conducted on me and get me arrested. I want to tell Devendra Fadnavis, who with the help of Delhi (Centre) and ED-CBI has brought Maharashtra politics to a very low level, ' Devendra Fadnavis, I am waiting for my arrest,” Deshmukh said.

The CBI has registered an FIR against Deshmukh, the then special public prosecutor Pravin Pandit Chavan, and two police officials for alleged conspiracy to frame top state BJP leaders in a false case in 2020, officials said last week.

The CBI lodged the case after a two-year preliminary enquiry, which originated from a pen drive handed over to the then Maharashtra Assembly Speaker by Fadnavis, who was in the opposition in 2020, they said.

The “pen drive bomb” contained purported videos showing Chavan had allegedly conspired with trustee of Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj and lawyer Vijay Patil and the then home minister Deshmukh to frame BJP leader Mahajan, who is now a minister.

In 2020, a case was registered based on a complaint from Patil, who had alleged that in 2018, he was taken to a hotel in Pune where he was tortured by unknown persons who forced him to resign along with other trustees and told him that Mahajan wanted to take over Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj Limited.

Fadnavis, currently Deputy CM, submitted video recordings of over 100 hours in the pen drive to suggest that the case was part of a conspiracy to target BJP leaders. The case was first handed over to the CID and later to the CBI for investigation.

Deshmukh has termed the case as “baseless”.

The former state home minister is already facing a CBI case for alleged corruption and another case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).