Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena slams ED, BJP over 'Political Vendetta'

Mumbai: Shiv Sena(UBT) on Wednesday accused the Enforcement Directorate of not adhering to the “values of law and justice” and criticised the BJP for using ED as a “pawn” to further its politics. 

Shiv Sena(UBT) in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ editorial claimed that misuse of agencies like ED is the “misuse” of the Indian Constitution. “The ED, which does not seem to follow the values of law and justice, has divided the corrupt people — those who joined the BJP are saints and the businessmen and politicians in the opposition parties into robbers. Agencies like ED have been exposed many times, but the Supreme Court has caught hold of the ED by its wagging tail. Therefore, Chief Justice Gavai should be congratulated for that,” said the editorial.

The trigger for Uddhav Thackeray camp to target the Central investigation agency was the Chief Justice’s scathing remarks against ED — “Don’t use court to fight your political battles.” He did not stop there and added, “Unfortunately, I have some experience in Maharashtra. Please do not force us to say something. Otherwise, we have to say something very harsh about the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Let political battles be fought among the electorate. Why are you being used for it?”

Taking a cue from CJI’s reference to ED’s actions, Thackeray camp said what happened in Maharashtra was a blow to democracy, the Constitution and the investigative agencies. The ED was openly used for political reasons. “Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, former Minister Nawab Malik, Shiv Sena(UBT) MP Sanjay Raut were arrested through ED only for political revenge. All the cases imposed by the ED ultimately turned out to be fake. The ED made these arrests to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. The ED threatened many MLAs and MPs, including Eknath Shinde, Pratap Sarnaik, Hasan Mushrif, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, Bhavana Gawli and forced them to join the BJP. It was the shamelessness to use the ED to topple the Thackeray government,” said the editorial.

According to the editorial, the Central investigation agencies have never been used so “shamelessly” in Indian politics. “Anil Deshmukh was charged with a money laundering case of Rs 100 crore, and the case finally came to a halt at Rs 1.25 crore. Sanjay Raut was charged with a Rs 1400 crore Patra Chawl case, and finally it was down to Rs 50 lakh. The ED suffered scars on its reputation in court. Nawab Malik was directly linked to Dawood Ibrahim in a land deal. It was not proven, and what can be said about the fact that today the same Nawab Malik is in the ruling party,” said the editorial. (IANS)

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