Will Maharashtra Minister Accused Of Rape Quit? NCP Weighs Options

Mumbai:

Maharashtra Minister Dhananjay Munde is beneath stress to stop over allegations of rape, which he has linked to blackmail by a girl he was concerned with. His celebration Nationalist Congress Social gathering (NCP) has stated it’s wanting into the allegations, described as “critical” by its chief Sharad Pawar.

Mr Munde, 45, has been accused of rape in a police grievance by a girl who has alleged on social media that there’s a risk to her life. The minister, however, went on Fb to disclaim the allegations and claimed that he was being blackmailed due to his relationship with the lady’s sister.

Within the publish, Mr Munde stated he had been with the complainant’s sister for years and had two youngsters together with her, who had been accepted by his spouse and household.

Amid calls for for his resignation by the opposition BJP, Sharad Pawar stated the celebration was discussing internally what to do about Mr Munde, who’s Maharashtra’s Social Justice Minister.

Mr Pawar stated Mr Munde had mentioned the allegations with him.

“I feel the allegation towards him (Munde) is critical. Naturally, we should focus on the difficulty as a celebration. I’ll focus on the identical intimately with my key colleagues and take them into confidence,” Mr Pawar stated on Thursday.

“Additional steps will probably be taken after understanding their views. We are going to do that as quickly as potential,” he added.

High NCP leaders, together with celebration president Sharad Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Water Sources Minister Jayant Patil and senior chief Praful Patel, met right here late Thursday night time to debate the difficulty.

Maharashtra NCP chief and minister Jayant Patil stated Mr Munde “won’t resign simply because somebody has made allegations”.

Any conclusion ought to be reached solely primarily based on a police investigation, Mr Patil stated. In line with him, Mr Munde had complained about blackmail by the lady however the police didn’t take correct motion, after which he approached the Bombay Excessive Court docket.

The Shiv Sena, which leads the Maharashtra coalition with the NCP and Congress, is “not interfering”, stated the NCP.

“The state of affairs will certainly be reviewed contained in the celebration. If want be, we are going to take acceptable positions primarily based on information on the stage of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray,” Jayant Patil stated.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut referred to as it a “private and household situation” that ought to be left to Mr Munde to resolve.

The 37-year-old lady, an aspiring singer, has stated she wrote to the Mumbai police commissioner on January 10 about Mr Munde “repeatedly raping her in 2006”. She additionally claimed she went to the police however her grievance was ignored.

The BJP has escalated calls for for Mr Munde’s resignation despite the fact that its own party leader has alleged that he, too, was harassed by the identical lady and there was an try to honey-trap him.