Ram temple land purchase a fit case for CBI, ED probe: Raut

Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said the alleged financial irregularities in the purchase of land by the Ram temple trust in Ayodhya was a “fit case” for probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He said the BJP’s national executive should pass a resolution to demand investigation by these agencies in the land case.

Raut was responding to reporters’ query on the ED’s searches at former state home minister Anil Deshmukh’s premises in Nagpur and Mumbai on Friday as part of a money-laundering probe against him.

Hitting out at the Maharashtra unit of the BJP for passing a resolution in its executive demanding CBI and ED probe against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab, Raut said, “Are the CBI and the ED your party workers or members of the IT cell?”

The Rajya Sabha member accused the BJP of lowering the importance of the central investigating agencies – CBI and ED – by “using them for targeting political rivals”.

“It is not right to misuse the central investigating agencies. This should stop. It is understandable if the agencies probe cases of national security, loss to national treasury, money laundering. But why are you maligning the image of these agencies?” Raut asked.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will complete two years in office this year, he said, adding that it would remain stable for another three years. “Such tactics to destablise the government will not work,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Pune, state Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil, said, “The matter related to Anil Deshmukh is sub-judice and it will not be appropriate to comment on the ED action against him.”

Replying to a question, he said it was “very strange” that the ED searches come a day after the state BJP passed a resolution demanding CBI and ED probe against Ajit Pawar and Anil Parab. “This is the time to focus only on COVID-19. But BJP is doing wrong things at wrong time,” he said.

In Nagpur, NCP workers protested against the ED by holding a demonstration outside Deshmukh’s residence. NCP workers, led by the party’s city unit chief Duneshwar Pethe, raised slogans against the central government, terming it as “autocratic”.

Talking to reporters, Pethe alleged that the central government was misusing the CBI and the ED and maligning the MVA government.