A T Pawar denies welcome, State closes chapter

However, on May 20, Pawar had confirmed that he was present at the Nashik Central Jail to welcome the accused persons, since they were his voters. “It is true that I welcomed them, but certainly to welcome accused persons is not a crime,” A T Pawar had stated.

Subsequently, A T Pawar’s office had submitted a brief note to Bhujbal’s office on a series of incidents that rocked Abhona following the attack on members of the Christians community. In that note too, Pawar had confirmed that he had not only welcomed the accused persons, but had also organised lawyers to fight their case.

According to reports, when the accused were released from the Nashik Central Jail, along with senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde, Pawar was also present to welcome them.

At today’s briefing, while Vilasrao Deshmukh said his office has received an explanation from Pawar, Bhujbal said that in view of the note submitted by Pawar to the Congress-led Democratic Front, the chapter was closed.

When Bhujbal’s attention was drawn to photographs of Pawar published in a section of the media published from Nashik, the home town of the Minister of State, Bhujbal said as he has accepted Pawar’s explanation, there was no question of taking any action against him.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that he had met village panchayat and zilla parishad office-bearers from Nashik and they had also voiced the opinion that the Minister had not welcomed the accused in the Abhona incident.