Leaders of the Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party sought $6 million, or nearly Rs 51.37 crore, from India to aid a plot to impeach Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, reported The Washington Post on Monday.

The plan was detailed in an internal document titled “Democratic Renewal Initiative” that the United States-based newspaper said it had obtained.

According to The Washington Post, Maldivian Opposition leaders had proposed bribing 40 MPs, including those from Muizzu’s People’s National Congress, to vote to impeach the president. They had also allegedly proposed to pay 10 senior Maldivian Army and police officers, and three “powerful criminal gangs”.

“To pay off the various parties, the conspirators sought 87 million Maldivian Rufiyaa, or $6 million, and according to two Maldivian officials, it would be sought from India,” the report stated.

However, the plot did not materialise, according to the report, and “India did not pursue or finance an attempt to oust him”.

This comes months after India withdrew all its military personnel stationed in the Maldives. For Muizzu, who is considered to hold a favourable stance towards China, removing the Indian military from his country was a key election promise.

A day after coming to power on November 18, 2023, Muizzu asked India to remove its military presence from the Maldives as he met Union minister Kiren Rijiju in Malé.

India was the only foreign power with a military presence in the country. A group of Indian defence personnel had been maintaining radar stations and surveillance aircraft in the archipelago. Indian warships also help patrol the Maldives’ exclusive economic zone.

This collaboration and the general partnership with Malé was of strategic importance to New Delhi amid its geopolitical competition with China in the Indian Ocean region.

In January, Muizzu made his first official state visit to China amid a diplomatic spat with India. India is typically the first country that new Maldivian presidents visit after assuming power. Muizzu had first requested a visit to New Delhi but was turned down, according to reports.

According to The Washington Post, officials from India’s foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing allegedly discussed the plot to impeach Muizzu with Opposition leaders in the Maldives in January 2024.

Quoting an unidentified adviser to the Muizzu family, the newspaper reported that a senior Research and Analysis Wing officer stationed in Washington explored a plan to overthrow the Maldivian president with two Indian intermediaries.

The first was Shirish Thorat, a former Indian police officer and private military contractor who had provided counsel to Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, on tackling Islamist radicalisation.

The other was Savio Rodrigues, a publisher from Goa and former spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Both men confirmed the existence of this plan to The Washington Post. However, they did not specify if the plan was approved by the Indian government.

On Monday, Rodrigues stated that The Washington Post report aimed to “discredit” him but it “is not an indictment of my actions but a testament to the truth I represent and the challenges I confront in the defence of my country”.

He also claimed that after the report was published, Muizzu had a discussion with “his people” on “intending to put a bounty on the heads of Shirish Thorat and me”.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the report so far.

Former Maldivian President Nasheed stated on Monday that he was “unaware of any serious plot against the president”.

“India would never back such a move, as they always support Maldives’ democracy,” Nasheed said on social media. “India has never dictated terms to us, either.”