Mumbai. A day after Mumbai Police recorded his statement at home in connection with the phone tapping scam, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said he was not afraid of going to jail. Hitting out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the Maharashtra Assembly, Fadnavis recalled how his father spent two years in jail without any charges during the Emergency.
Fadnavis was questioned for two hours at his residence on Sunday. “I am not afraid of jail. I will continue to expose corruption,” he said.
He was questioned by the police team on investigation into alleged illegal tapping of telephones of prominent personalities and leakage of confidential information relating to alleged corrupt practices in police department transfers/promotions last year.
Speaking on the issue, Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said that there is no exemption in criminal cases and Fadnavis was duly given notice in the regular course.
Walse-Patil said, “The notice under section 160 of CrPC was sent to Fadnavis not as an accused, but to record his statement. This is a routine exercise and not done intentionally.”
He said the police have registered an FIR in the unauthorized phone tapping case and the statements of 24 others have been recorded.
Walse-Patil said that the police have asked the Union Home Secretary to share a copy of the pen drive given by Fadnavis in connection with alleged irregularities and corruption in police transfers/promotions.
BJP member Sudhir Mungantiwar, who took up the matter, said that MLAs are protected by privilege and cannot share their sources, and even the Supreme Court has upheld this.
Fadnavis said that when the questionnaire was sent to him recently, the questions asked were for an ‘eyewitness account’, but the questioning at his home on Sunday (March 13) was for an accused, and said he knew That ‘who changed the questions and why’.
He said that he is protected as a whistle blower under the Act and will continue to expose corruption in the government.
—AnyTV News
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