Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said in the assembly that the woman accused of trying to extort money from rural development minister Jaykumar Gore had been in direct touch with NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule and MLA Rohit Pawar.
The 47-year-old woman from Satara was arrested by laying a trap last week.
Fadnavis said her associate, Tushar Kharat, a YouTuber who was also arrested, had several conversations with NCP (SP) netas besides Sule and Pawar. Defending Gore, Fadnavis said if politics is being done with the intention of destroying someone’s life, then it is not right.
Fadnavis said the breach of privilege committee had become a toothless tiger and people were ridiculing and disrespecting the legislature and demeaning its status and constitutional position.
Pawar said the matter should be handled transparently.
“The matter came to us, we were told that the woman should get justice. Similarly, the journalist should also get justice. We must have made one or two calls for this. But there were not 100-200 calls. Now action is being taken,” he said.
The woman was arrested for allegedly receiving Rs 1 crore, part of a Rs 3 crore demand she made to Gore to halt her plan to protest outside Raj Bhavan, the governor’s official residence, accusing Gore of harassment.
“The case regarding Gore was registered in 2016, it ended in 2019. He was not even in the ruling party at that time. But then suddenly this happened and the issue was revived. I applaud their courage. A person tries to settle things in such a situation. But he complained after being asked for a bribe. Then they set a trap. The entire conversation was recorded. There are many clips of the conversation. After the police department was convinced, they set a trap. The accused was caught while actually taking the cash. So it was a form of blackmailing,” Fadnavis said.
“This was a kind of nexus. Three accused in this case have been arrested. One is the woman herself. The second is journalist Tushar Kharat and the third is a person named Anil Subhedar. All of them hatched this conspiracy together. All the evidence of this has been found. Their WhatsApp conversations have been found. But the unfortunate thing is that people from the NCP (SP) are directly in contact with all of them. Prabhakar Deshmukh has spoken to these three accused 100 times. The videos have gone to them. They have also responded. But what I feel worse is that Supriya Sule and Rohit Pawar have made calls to Tushar Kharat. The videos of Jayakumar Gore have been sent to these two by the accused. Now this will be investigated. But is this happening? We are not political enemies, we are political opponents,” Fadnavis said.
“The privilege committee has no teeth left. Because those same people insult the house every day and speak against it. They behave in such a way that ministers are pressured not to work in the house. How will things work like this? I don’t expect the house to punish them, but there is some respect for the house. They talk about the Constitution but insult this legislature every day. I leave it to you, you are our custodian. This house has sent even IAS officers to jail, we have reprimanded officers but this is not the case anywhere. We have privileges to work here, so if someone insults the house, then stern action must be taken,” Fadnavis said.