Eknath Khadse in spotlight, Devendra Fadnavis submits report on scams to BJP chief Amit Shah
The Maharashtra revenue minister is facing allegations of having received calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim and also of purchasing a government plot illegally.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday submitted a report to Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on the scandals surrounding state Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse. Shah had sought a report on the scams Khadse is allegedly involved in – one related to an illegal land deal in Maharashtra and the other that he had received calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s home in Pakistan. Fadnavis said the party will take appropriate action against Khadse based on the report, Times Now reported.
Shah reportedly discussed the allegations against Khadse with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who met with Fadnavis earlier in the day and directed him to “handle the Khadse issue” post haste, NDTV reported. Fadnavis met Khadse earlier this week to discuss the issues and also asked him to quit, according to an India Today report. However, the revenue minister allegedly refused to hand in his resignation. “The central BJP is mounting pressure. He [Khadse] will have to give in. There is little room for defiance now,” a senior BJP official said.
Khadse allegedly bought three acres of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Bhosari at a price of Rs 3.75 crore. However, the builder had said the land's market value was around Rs 40 crore, News18 reproted. Khadse had denied the claim.
The Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that Khadse had received calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, which BJP denied. The party had called the claims baseless, saying that the phone number AAP attributed to Khadse had not been used for more than a year. Khadse, too, denied any involvement with Dawood, saying that the cell phone number in question did belong to him, but it had not been used for the last year.
On May 22, the Mumbai Police also rejected the AAP’s claims. “Our initial analysis of the cell phone number [belonging to Khadse] indicated that there were neither outgoing nor incoming calls from this number to that of the fugitive [Dawood] during the entire period of September, 2015, to April, 2016,” Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni had said. The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad is now investigating the alleged phone calls.