MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government-controlled Pune police and Centre-run National Investigative Agency (NIA) had a face-off on Tuesday after the former refused to hand over the sensitive Elgar Parishad case to the latter.
After the Union Home Ministry issued an order that they are taking over this case because it is connected to security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar too demanded a re-probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the case. When the three-member NIA team from Pune reached to police commissioner office to take the case documents on Monday they were denied access.
“We told them unless and until we get the order from the directorate general of Maharashtra police, they unable to hand over any piece of documents to anyone, including the NIA. We are not saying no to NIA, but we need an order from our bosses,” said a senior police from Pune. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that he has not yet got any instruction from the Centre regarding Elgar Parished case handing over to NIA. “We are seeking legal advice over retaining the probe of this important case. The Centre should specify what exactly they want to probe and documents needed, then we will decide over it,” the home minister said.
Sudhir Mungantiwar, senior BJP leader said that the NIA Act was framed during the Congress regime only. “The NIA Act clearly says central agencies are superior in authority and hierarchy while conducting any sort of the probe. If the state government is not cooperative, then the Centre can forcefully take over the case,” BJP leader said.