Raut backtracks from exposing BJP leaders, issues usual rhetoric

Mumbai: The ruling Janata Party was using state investigative agencies to target Shiv Sena members and topple the Maharashtra government, claimed Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday, stating that the Central government was pulling out all the stops to target leaders and their families.

On Monday, Raut said that the Sena would expose the BJP leaders in a press conference on Tuesday, after which half of the BJP leaders will have to be behind the bars. He claimed that the Sena will also make it miserable for the BJP leaders for their crimes.

The remarks were made during a media briefing in the Shiv Sena headquarters in Mumbai's Dadar.

"The day I was targeted, and my close ones raided, I called up Amit Shah that night. I told him I respect you...you are a big leader and home minister of the country, but whatever is happening is not right. If you have any animosity with me then target me, torture me, why are they (central agencies) targeting my friends and relatives," he was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Maharashtra's ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), were being systematically targeted by investigative agencies, Raut claimed, citing the example of Enforcement Directorate interrogating vendors associated with his daughter's wedding including the florist and the tailor.

The Sena MP claimed he was contacted last month by "some BJP leaders" who asked him to switch sides and warned he would have to pay a price for not doing so, alleging that he was told he would be "fixed" by agencies if he did not acquiesce.

"Around 20 days back, some senior people of the BJP met me and asked me to shift allegiance. We want to topple this government anyhow. We will either get President's Rule imposed or we will break a group of MLAs and form the government," Raut claimed, adding that he declined to do so.

He also targeted BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya who had accused the Thackeray family of having benami properties in their name, to which Raut responded with a challenge to prove the allegations with facts, adding that he also had proof that Somaiya's son Neil was involved in the PMC bank fraud case.

The Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating Raut in the PMC money laundering case, had alleged that Pravin Raut had "siphoned off" ₹95 crore worth of funds from the scam-hit bank in the garb of loan, out of which he paid ₹1.6 crore to his wife Madhuri Raut who subsequently transferred ₹55 lakhs in two tranches to Varsha Raut, wife of Sanjay Raut, as "interest free loan."

Referring to Mr Raut's allegations, BJP leader and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he would "respond at an appropriate time".