Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Ambadas Danve has demanded that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe alleged financial relations between NCP minister Dhananjay Munde and his aide Walmik Karad.
Referring to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Suraj Chavan who recently got bail in a money laundering case, Danve said here on Tuesday that Chavan faced investigation over an alleged scam of only a few lakh rupees.
“When so many things (allegations) worth crores of rupees are coming out, then the financial relations between Dhananjay Munde and Walmik Karad should also be probed by the ED,” said Danve, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader.
The Opposition is mounting pressure on the BJP-led government in the state to sack Munde following the arrest of his close aide Karad in an extortion case related to the murder of sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in Beed district, the minister’s home turf in central Maharashtra.
The NCP leader has denied the allegations against him, including those regarding business relationship between him and Karad.
Danve, meanwhile, also claimed that when Munde was agriculture minister in the previous government, many officers could not work properly because “Dhananjay Munde and Walmik Karad were running the agriculture department.”
Munde should be sacked irrespective of his community and caste because he is “anti-farmer,” Danve said, adding that the coming session of the Maharashtra legislature will not proceed without Munde’s resignation.
Referring to allegations made by activist Anjali Damania, he said cases should be registered against the then minister (Munde) and secretary.
Damania, a former Aam Aadmi Party leader, alleged on Tuesday that despite the Union government’s 2016 directive to transfer money directly to farmers’ bank accounts under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), the agriculture department under Munde in 2024 purchased equipment and fertilisers for distribution to farmers at inflated rates. There was a Rs 88 crore scam, she alleged.
Munde denied all her allegations, terming them as baseless, and said he will file a defamation case against her.
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