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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 8: A day after the Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane dared chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh government to do his worst on the Additional advocate General P Janardhanan’s opinion that the government can book Rane for withholding information on ISI, Janardhanan today stated that the police would be violating the law if they failed to book Rane.
The Additional Advocate General said Narayan Rane and BJP’s Nitin Gadkari had committed an offence under the law of the land by not reporting their allegations about ISI links of Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal either to police or court.
Janardhanan had dashed off a letter to Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar on February 5 urging him to direct the police to proceed in accordance with law against the leaders for their statements in a section of the press about Bhujbal’s alleged links with ISI.
Janardhanan felt that Rane and Gadkari should be thoroughly interrogated by police and if the authorities suspected that any information was being withheld by them or that they were trying to mislead the law enforcement agency, then under such circumstances these leaders could even be arrested.
Janardhanan said police too had a duty to register a case against Rane, the leader of the opposition in the state Legislative Assembly and his counterpart in the Council Gadkari for making such disclosures which were sensitive in nature and involved the security of the nation because ISI was allegedly involved in committing terrorist acts in India.
If the police did not register a case against them then they will be committing an offence under Section 217 IPC which required the official authority to act in accordance with law, he said.
The Additional Advocate General further said that such statements coming from persons holding responsible posts in the opposition needed to be probed in view of the serious allegations levelled by them that ISI agents were freely moving about in and around Bhujbal’s residence and Mantralaya. On Monday, the state government had asked the city police commissioner to take necessary action on the letter written by Janardhanan to the Chief Secretary on such allegations made by leaders of a political party.
A senior official revealed that the Additional Advocate General’s opinion on the matter has been forwarded to Director General of Police Subhash Chandra Malhotra as well as Commissioner of Police R H Mendonca. Simultaneously, comments of the law and judiciary department have also been sought. “It has been left on Mendonca to decide what action should be taken on Janardhanan’s opinion,” the official added.
Reacting to the government’s move, Rane had said on Monday that he was ready for any kind of probe including one by the CBI. “I feel that the Central Bureau of Investigation should be entrusted the task so that the main culprits having links with the criminals are exposed,” Rane said.
Demanding the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Rane pointed out that Bhujbal has admitted that two of the main accused in the serial bomb blasts case had called on him at his official residence. “I feel that Bhujbal has maintained the tradition of his political mentor Sharad Pawar. When Pawar was the Defence Minister, the accused in the J J shootout case were flown-in in a Defence aircraft and now, the accused in the bomb blast case have met Bhujbal at his residence. Under such circumstances, Bhujbal has no moral right to continue in office,” Rane said.
Rane felt that a high level probe should be conducted into the nexus of leading politicians, particularly of the ruling party, with the criminals. “I feel that now the ISI has associated itself with local gangsters mainly to create instability in the state as well as the country. Under such circumstances, if a probe is conducted, it will help the administration in restoring normalcy,” he added.
