Maharashtra Forms SIT To Probe ‘Plan’ To Arrest Fadnavis, Shinde During Uddhav Govt

A Special Investigation Team has been formed by the Maharashtra Home Department to investigate whether the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was planning to arrest the then LoP in the state Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde in a fake case. 

Senior cabinet minister Shambhuraje Desai announced the probe team in the Assembly on Tuesday and said it would be headed by a senior IPS officer.

The development came after a businessman named Sanjay Punamiya, claimed that sting operations aired by the media showed a former police officer saying during a telephonic conversation that former Mumbai Police chief was preparing to get Fadnavis and Shinde arrested. The businessman also claimed the arrest would be linked to a case against him.

Following these claims, BJP MLC Pravin Darekar demanded an investigation in the conspiracy by an SIT. He also presented a pen drive in the legislative council, which he claimed contains videos of a sting operation that revealed the alleged plan. 

The SIT has been asked to submit its report to the Maharashtra government within 30 days time. It will be headed by Joint Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, Mumbai Satyanarayan Chaudhary.

In December 2024, Darekar had claimed the footage of the sting operation showed a police commissioner pressurising a citizen to “make false statements to frame Fadnavis,” Times Of India reported.

“In another video, ACP Sardar Patil can be seen speaking to another person, who sought to know why an old case was being reopened. That’s when ACP Patil reveals that the original target of the case is Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde,” he further claimed.

Eknath Shinde was a cabinet minister in Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

Darekar also demanded action against DCP Patil and former advocate general Shekhar Jagtap. He claimed that Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey was given the job to get Fadnavis arrested.