Sanjay Raut said that BJP leaders had warned him about the plan for more than a year.
Mumbai:
The wife of the Shiv Sena leader, Sanjay Raut, has sought more time to appear before the Directorate of Enforcement for questioning in the PMC bank fraud case. Varsha Raut had been summoned by the agency investigating financial crimes on Sunday, prompting a war of words between Maharashtra’s ruler Shiv Sena and the ally-turned-adversary BJP that rules in the center.
Raut had alleged on Monday that central agencies were being used to “destabilize” the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra and claimed that BJP leaders had warned him about the plan for more than a year.
Raut said the BJP leaders had a list of 22 MLAs from Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with them “who will be forced to resign under pressure from central investigative agencies.”
The PNC led by Sharad Pawar and Congress are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Shiv Sena, which was formed in November 2019 after the Sena and the BJP squabbled over sharing the post of chief minister after elections to the assembly.
“Some BJP leaders have been contacting me since last year, saying that they have made all the arrangements to destabilize the government of Maharashtra. They have been pressuring and threatening me not to support the government,” Raut said.
The Compliance Directorate or ED had summoned Varsha Raut for questioning in the PMC Bank money laundering case on Dec. 29, officials said Sunday.
Officials said Varsha Raut was asked to appear before the federal agency in Mumbai. This is the third summons issued to her after she skipped the previous two for health reasons, they said.
“I will also have discussions with the president of NCP, Sharad Pawar,” Raut said when asked if his wife will appear before the DE in response to the subpoena issued against her.
Raut said he was a Shiv Sainik from Balasaheb Thackeray and that he will “expose” the BJP leaders.
“They will have to take flights out of the country like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallaya,” he said.
Mr. Raut claimed that he had a list of “120 BJP leaders who are in a position to be the subject of an investigation by the ED for money laundering.”
Saying that his wife is a teacher, Raut said that, unlike the BJP leaders, “our income has not increased by Rs 1.6 billion.”
“This policy is played out of frustration when you cannot fight head to head with your political opponents. Shiv sena will respond to this in equal measure,” Raut said.
.
