NCP confusing people on Elgar probe, says Devendra Fadnavis

NAGPUR: Flaying NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s demand to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe Elgar Parishad case, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday accused the party of confusing people.
Pawar had opposed National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) decision to take over the case, and home minister Anil Deshmukh had written to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to oppose NIA, and requested him to form the SIT.The CM, however, cleared the way for NIA, which led to differences between the two coalition partners.
“The ruling dispensation isn’t interested in the findings, but only wants to confuse the people. Once NIA has taken over the probe, there is no need for another probe. The NIA has concrete evidence against the accused and therefore the CM has heeded to its request,” Fadnavis told TOI.
The ex-CM was in the city after being summoned by the chief judicial magistrate’s (CJM) court.
Fadnavis said the two complaints against him mentioned by the applicant were of private nature, including defamation. “Those were filed over a protest for public causes of slum dwellers in Gokulpeth area, back in 1996-97 and in 2003. Now, both cases have been disposed of.”
Explaining the first case, the southwest Nagpur MLA said it was filed when he went to save slums from getting demolished, since he was corporator of that area. “Since it was related to a land of a former government lawyer, he had filed defamation case against me. The other one is related to tax payment over ULC surplus land, which was again a private one.”
He said that his lawyers, who prepared his affidavit in 2014, told him that only cases which could have impacted the polls should be disclosed. “In all five assembly elections, I won with over 50% majority. So there is no question of any impact of private complaints. In fact, I had also sought information under the RTI Act from cops regarding cases filed against me, and even they failed to mention these two complaints. But they’re not at fault as they were never discussed for nearly two decades from 1996 to 2014,” he said.
Speaking on Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) loan waiver scheme, the opposition leader said it was an extension of the schemes launched by the BJP government with some changes. “We will be cornering the ruling dispensation on various farmers related issues, including the loan waiver,” he said.