Anil Deshmukh: 130 raids against me, not even my 6-year-old granddaughter spared
In an interview to HT, the former home minister spoke about ED and other agencies raiding his various houses, and even broke down over the resulting trauma
With Maharashtra Assembly elections slated in a few months’ time, political parties have begun their poll campaign. Are former home minister Anil Deshmukh’s recent comments against Devendra Fadnavis then the opening salvo of the Maha Vikas Aghadi campaign or is there more dirt to be unearthed in coming days?
On Friday, After Deshmukh, the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader from Vidarbha, and Devendra Fadnavis shared the stage in Nagpur during the opening of a primary health care centre but did not speak to one another. This was their first public meeting after Deshmukh’s sensational claims that an aide of Fadnavis had tried to pressure him into signing four fake affidavits against Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray and Anil Parab and Ajit Pawar.
Deshmukh stepped down as home minister in April 5, 2021 after then-Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of directing police officers to collect money from hotel and bar owners across the city. A charge that Singh later retracted. But the NCP leader was subsequently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case in November 2021 and then by the CBI in a corruption case in April 2022.
Now out on bail, he met PRADIP KUMAR MAITRA at his Civil Lines residence in Nagpur, and elaborated on his allegations. At one point in the interview as he spoke about ED and other central agencies raiding his various houses 130 times after he refused to sign the false affidavits, Deshmukh broke down as he dwelt on the resulting trauma for his family.
To start with the obvious: Why did you keep quiet (about the false affidavits) for three years and choose to reveal it to the media ahead of the state elections?
I kept quiet for certain reasons. I will not divulge them right now but just wait for 15-20 days. Also, I only endorsed what Anti-Superstition Committee president Shyam Manav disclosed at his press briefing in Pune.
Both BJP and Fadnavis have called the claims as utter lies. They also say that if such an approach was indeed made you could have raised it during the MVA regime itself and booked Fadnavis when your alliance was in power.
It was really a shock for me when a certain Samit Kadam, a trusted lieutenant of the present deputy chief minister, came to meet me in the middle of April 2021 and said that Fadnavis wanted to talk to me and handed over an envelope with four so-called affidavits. Kadam came to my official bungalow for a couple of days, carrying messages from Fadnavis from time-to-time after CBI and ED began their inquiries against me. The offer was made to halt these probes against me in return for me signing those affidavits.
Did Kadam come back to you even after you refused to sign the affidavits?
Yes, he came again the next day and gave me a new offer-- that they are ready to exclude the affidavit implicating Ajit and Parth Pawar. Now, I had to sign the remaining three affidavits, implicating Thackerays and Parab. I was perturbed and a little bit annoyed that why they implicate a young man like Aaditya (in the Disha Salian case)? It was sheer politics. I was asked to give a false affidavit that Aaditya Thackeray had raped Disha Salian and thrown her from the balcony. I clearly told them that even if I have to go to jail for life, I will not make such false allegations. I did not bow down, and which is why ED and CBI were sent after me.
Did you know Samit Kadam before meeting him at your then official bungalow in Mumbai?
No. I met him first in the middle of April, 2021, when he introduced himself as an associate of Fadnavis and told me that the then Opposition leader had sent him to talk with me regarding my ED and CBI cases.
But Kadam says that you knew him and had called him seeking help from Union home minister Amit Shah and Fadnavis over the cases you were facing?
He is lying. I never met him before April 2021. I am firm about what I am saying. I will release video recordings in this regard at the appropriate time.
Did you share this news of Kadam’s approach to you with any of your party colleagues or the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray?
The very next day in fact. I went to Sharad Pawar’s residence and narrated everything. He told me that he would talk to Fadnavis as the latter was supposed to meet the NCP chief on the same day.
What happened then?
I don’t know what Pawar saheb told Fadnavis and how he reacted. But the next day, the ED raided my houses in Nagpur and Mumbai. So far, around 130 raids have been carried out at my residences from the central agencies. Similar raids had also been initiated against my aides in Mumbai and Nagpur.
Were your family members harassed during this period?
Yes, they were harassed extensively without any valid reasons. Even my six-year-old granddaughter was not spared, as she was mistreated by the officials who were acting under the directives of powerful individuals. The trauma and suffering inflicted upon my family were so severe that it contributed to my wife developing cancer. At one point, the pressure was so overwhelming that I contemplated suicide.
Fadnavis is not just denying your claims but he has also said that he, in fact, has some audio-visual clips about you talking badly about Uddhav Thackeray?
I have video recordings to prove my claims. If anyone challenges me, then I will reveal everything. If Fadnavis has something against me then why is he still hiding it?
Do you think your claims against Fadnavis can become a poll issue in the coming Assembly elections?
It can’t be ruled out. If the opposition raises it in the elections, definitely I will tell the voters how my family members and I were harassed and tortured without valid reasons. It’s really pathetic how central agencies are being misused for political vendetta for not toeing their (BJP) line.