NAGPUR/MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday claimed Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had tried to save ex-Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh from arrest by asking him to level allegations against Deshmukh to topple the MVA government.
Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Deshmukh also called Singh the "mastermind" of the 2021 bomb scare near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence 'Antilia' in south Mumbai and subsequent murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran.
Both Fadnavis and Singh separately dismissed the allegations made by the senior NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader against them.
When the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in office in 2021, Deshmukh resigned as home minister after Singh accused him of setting a target to collect Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai.
Deshmukh has also claimed dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze was levelling allegations against him at the behest of Fadnavis.
Waze is accused of planting an SUV packed with gelatin sticks outside Mukesh Ambani's residence ' in February 2021 and also booked for the subsequent murder of businessman Hiran, the owner of the explosives-laden vehicle.
During the press conference, reporters asked Deshmukh about Fadnavis comments that Singh and Waze were appointed when Deshmukh was the home minister.
In reply, Deshmukh claimed, "When I was the home minister of Maharashtra, we came to know in an inquiry that (the then) Mumbai top cop Param Bir Singh was the mastermind behind planting of bomb in a Scorpio vehicle found near residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Singh was also mastermind behind the killing of the Scorpio vehicle owner. Singh along with his other accomplices had carried out this."
Singh was supposed to get arrested three years back and to avoid it, he "surrendered himself to Fadnavis and the central government," the NCP (SP) leader charged.
"Fadnavis assured Singh that he won't be arrested, but on the condition that he will have to level allegations against me to topple the MVA government. Hence, Param Bir Singh levelled allegations against me," Deshmukh claimed.
Deshmukh has also dared Fadnavis, who is now the home minister, to make the Justice Chandiwal Commission report public, claiming he had been given a clean chit in the graft case against him.
Fadnavis on Sunday said the Chandiwal Commission report was submitted when the MVA was in power but no action was taken.
Countering it, Deshmukh on Monday said, "It is right that the report was submitted to the MVA government, but it fell within a few days after the report was submitted, and hence the MVA government could not release it."
Subsequently, the Mahayuti government (of Shiv Sena and BJP) came to power and the Chandiwal Commission report is kept with Fadnavis for the last two years, he claimed.
"I have been requesting them to make the report public, but Fadnavis is diverting the issue by saying the report was submitted during the MVA government and is delaying making it public. I again urge Fadnavis to make that report public," Deshmukh said.
To a query on banners allegedly defaming him erected in Nagpur by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Deshmukh claimed such hoardings were put "with the blessings of Devendra Fadnavis" and said police have taken action and removed them.
Asked about Deshmukh's claims, Deputy CM Fadnavis told reporters, "Jhooth bole kauva kaate...kaale kauve se dariyo (meaning, one should not speak lies, or else a crow will peck at you)" without elaborating.
When contacted, BJP state spokesperson Chandan Goswami alleged the opposition INDIA alliance and the MVA were working on a strategy of telling lies, like their claim that the Constitution will be changed.
On Deshmukh's claims against Fadnavis, Goswami asked how can a leader (then) in opposition ask a police commissioner for such a thing when the MVA government had appointed Singh to the to post in Mumbai.
"It is all a strategy to defame Fadnavis," said the state BJP spokesperson.
Meanwhile, former Mumbai police commissioner Singh, speaking to a Marathi news channel, strongly refuted Deshmukh's allegations and said the ex-home minister has lost his "mental balance."
"Whatever allegations I had made, all were substantiated and were also covered in investigations conducted by the ED and the CBI," said the retired IPS officer.
Deshmukh used to collect money not only from Mumbai but also from other places through various agents and evidence of this has come to the fore during investigations, alleged Singh.
The former IPS officer claimed it is also a fact that after he levelled graft allegations against Deshmukh, he was threatened.
Singh alleged the then-DGP Sanjay Pandey had threatened him and that he submitted evidence in this regard before the CBI and also in the Supreme Court.