Maharashtra home minister and NCP leader R.R. Patil on Friday rejected the Opposition’s demand to conduct an Economic Offences Wing (EOW) probe against partyman and minister Sunil Tatkare for allegedly amassing huge assets in the Raigad district.
BJP MLA Devendra Phadanvis had demanded an EOW probe into the allegations made against Mr Tatkare. However, Mr Patil said that former MP Dr Kirit Somaiya — who had made the allegations against Mr Tatkare — “was in the habit of making complaints”.
“He has spared only the US President. We need him to give evidence to substantiate the allegations,” Mr Patil said, in his reply to the discussion in the legislative Assembly. He added that the state would also check if the EOW has the jurisdiction to investigate such complaints.
In his complaint to the EOW, Dr Somaiya had alleged that more than 100 companies have been floated in the name of Mr Tatkare’s son, daughter, daughter-in-law and the son of the minister’s gardener. “These companies have purchased vast land in the Raigad district, using money coming from various scams,” Dr Somaiya alleged.
Mr Patil also denied allegations of terrorist Abu Jundal having stayed in the MLA hostel in 2006, in a room allocated to minister of state Faujiya Khan. “I checked the records…but there are no entries as to whose room was used by the arrested terrorist,” Mr Patil said.
Speaking about security in jails, the home minister said that the inferences drawn about safety of jails in the state were wrong. Mr Patil was speaking in relation to the incident last month, where Indian Mujahideen operative Mohammed Qateel Siddique, an inmate in Yerwada Jail, was found strangled.
He said that when there was an incident of one inmate using spoons and forks to assault another prisoner, the state had decided to provide plastic spoons. “However, in this a string of bermuda shorts was used to kill the victim…in such a case, the state was helpless,” he said.
About the Mantralaya fire, the minister explained that an FIR would be registered only if sabotage was confirmed. If not, no further inquiry would be required, he said.