MAHARASHTRA MINISTER RESIGNS

MUMBAI: Maharashtra minister Sanjay Rathod, facing flak from the BJP over a woman's death in Pune, on Sunday resigned from the state cabinet, a day before the state legislature's budget session starts here.

Shortly after Rathod announced that he had submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the latter said the resignation has been accepted.

Thackeray also heads the Shiv Sena, the party to which Rathod belongs.

“There has been a lot of dirty politics over the issue of the woman's death,” Rathod (49) told reporters, adding he has quit the ministry so that the truth can come out.

The four-term MLA, who held the forest portfolio, was facing allegations of complicity in the death of Puja Chavan (23), a resident of Beed district, who was found dead in Pune on February 8, apparently after falling off from the building in which she lived.

Talking to reporters after meeting the chief minister at his official residence Varsha, Rathod said he had resigned to facilitate a free and fair probe.

“Attempts were made to tarnish my image and destroy my reputation I had built after 30 years of social work. I was saying that let the probe happen before taking any decision.

But the opposition threatened to disrupt the budget session,” Rathod said.

The BJP has accused Rathod of having links with the woman after his purported photographs,audio and video clips with her went viral on social media.

Slamming BJP leaders for targeting Rathod, Thackeray termed them hypocrite.

Addressing a Press conference on the eve of the budget session, Thackeraysaid the BJP was attempting to influence the probe in the death of the woman. Rathod quit on moral grounds as the BJP threatened it won't not allow the session proceedings till the minister resigns, Thackeray said.

“You cannot influence a probe to save or implicate anyone. Whatever was happening was dirty politics. I have already told the police to complete the probe in a time-bound manner. How can an FIR be filed against the minister just because the BJP is saying so,” he said.

Thackeray said the woman's parents and sister met him earlier in the day and expressed full faith in the police to probe the case. They also handed over a letter which said that Rathod who is a tall leader of the Banjara community shouldn't be maligned based on mere suspicion, he said.