FADNAVIS COMES TO DEFENCE OF KHADSE, OTHER MINISTERS

MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday defended some of his cabinet colleagues against whom the opposition Congress and NCP have levelled allegations of corruption.

Replying to a discussion on ‘tainted’ ministers, in the Lower House, the CM also made it clear that former revenue minister Eknath Khadse – who resigned recently in the wake of a series of allegations against him – has been given a clean chit in the PA bribery case.

Khadse’s name does not figure in the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) chargesheet in the case of graft by Gajanan Patil, an alleged personal assistant of Khadse, Fadnavis said.

Patil was trapped by the ACB on May 14 for allegedly demanding `30 crore from a Mumbaibased social entrepreneur Dr Ramesh Jadhav.

Fadnavis said Vadodarabased hacker Manish Bhangale had met him with alleged call records from Dawood’s Karachi residence to show that Khadse was in frequent touch with the underworld don.

“When Bhangale met me, I immediately asked the crime branch to conduct an inquiry,” Fadnavis said.

“No charge has been proved against minister Jaykumar Rawal,” he said. Similarly, there is not a single crime registered against Minister of State Ravindra Chavan, he added.

Fadnavis also defended minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, who has been found to be closely associated with a company listed as a wilful defaulter by the Bank of Maharashtra.

Nilangekar, minister for labour, earthquake rehabilitation and ex-servicemen’s welfare, is a guarantor for a loan that was a non-performing asset (NPA) and declared as a “fraud account” with an outstanding balance of `49.29 crore owed to two stateowned banks.

The CBI last year filed a chargesheet in a case of cheating lodged by the banks after finding that the mortgage deed papers for the loan had been tampered with.