Disha Salian death probe to Jayant Patil suspension to NIT land ‘scam’: Shinde-Fadnavis govt, MVA trade fireworks

The proceedings of the Assembly began in the morning with the Opposition boycotting it for a short while over the Speaker’s refusal to hold discussion on a phone-tapping case allegedly involving senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla. Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar charged Narvekar with “shielding” the government in this matter.

In line of the MVA’s attack over allegations against Chief Minister Shinde in the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) land “scam”, the ruling coalition hit back and raked up Salian’s death by suicide to target the Opposition camp. Salian was the ex-manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The BJP has been alleging Uddhav Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray’s “link” with Salian’s death since 2020.

The presiding officer, Sanjay Shirsat, allowed 14 ruling side’s MLAs to speak on the Salian death case, with all of them demanding a SIT in between multiple adjournments. Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis later announced the formation of a SIT for probing the Salian case, claiming that the CBI had not investigated the case, which was still with the Mumbai police.

The Opposition benches then raised the issue of the Pooja Chavan death case, which was allegedy linked to state food and drug administration minister Sanjay Rathod. As the Speaker repeatedly denied the Opposition members to speak, an enraged Jayant Patil slammed him,which further aggravated the situation leading to his suspension.

A former minister, Patil is currently also the Maharashtra NCP president. He has been a member of the House for over three decades.

Patil’s remarks against Narvekar triggered uproar among the Treasury benches. Parliamentary affairs minister Chandrakant Patil moved a suspension motion against him, which was passed by a voice vote.

The Opposition, which has been calling the Shinde-Fadnavis government the “khoka sarkar (government formed after receiving boxes of money)”,also labelled it Thursday as “nirlajja sarkar (shameless government)”.

After Patil’s suspension, the MVA members staged a protest against the government as well as the Speaker and raised slogans against them.

Outside the House too, the Uddhav Sena leaders alleged that the government’s bid to set up a SIT into the Salian death case was aimed at “diverting attention” from the Nagpur land “scam” involving CM Shinde.

Speaking to reporters in the Nagpur legislature premises, Uddhav’s son Aaditya Thackeray said his opponents did not have the “guts” to take the names while levelling allegations. “Never before politics stooped to such low levels. All this is being done to divert the attention from the NIT scam involving the chief minister,” he charged.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had last week ordered status quo on the decision taken by Shinde, when he was the urban development minister in the previous Uddhav-led government, over the allotment of land meant for slum dwellers to private persons. Shinde has denied any wrongdoing and rejected the Opposition’s demand to quit.

Maharashtra Congress president and MLA Nana Patole demanded the resignation of Deputy CM Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, for “shielding” culprits in the phone tapping case.

Talking to reporters in Nagpur, Patole maintained that the Opposition will consider moving a no-confidence motion against Speaker Narvekar if he continues to behave in a “biased” manner.

Patole alleged that in 2016-17, during the Fadnavis-led government, the phones of public representatives, government officials and journalists were illegally tapped.

The Opposition wanted a discussion on the phone tapping issue in the House, but this was not allowed by the Chair, said Patole, a former Assembly Speaker.

—(With inputs from PTI)