Ex-cop Waze reiterates bribery allegations against Anil Deshmukh; Fadnavis assures inquiry
Nagpur, Aug 3: Former Maharashtra home minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh on Saturday claimed that dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze's fresh allegation of bribery against him was a "new move" by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Reacting to Waze's claims, Fadnavis, who heads the Home department, assured to conduct a proper inquiry.
Waze, an accused in the 'Antilia' bomb scare and Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran murder cases, is currently lodged in Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai.
As per media reports, Waze has reiterated his bribery allegations against Deshmukh.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh, during his tenure as home minister, asked police officers to collect Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants in the city. In the wake of the allegations, Deshmukh had stepped down as the home minister in 2021.
Waze had earlier told an inquiry commission that he had paid money to Deshmukh’s associates on the latter’s instructions.
"What Sachin Waze spoke is a new move by Devendra Fadnavis, as a few days back, I had levelled allegations against Fadnavis about how he had three years back given a proposal to me to implicate Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray," Deshmukh said.
Fadnavis may not know that the Bombay High Court spoke about Sachin Waze's criminal background. He was arrested in two murder cases and is not a person who can be trusted, he said.
Deshmukh accused Fadnavis of using a person with a criminal background to implicate him.
Deshmukh recently claimed that Fadnavis as the opposition leader had tried to pressure him to sign affidavits against the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray, and even against Ajit Pawar, the Deputy CM in the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Fadnavis denied the allegations and threatened to release several audio-visual clips of Deshmukh, who hit back, claiming possession of a pen drive containing serious allegations against the senior BJP leader.
"I learnt about it (Waze's claim) from the media. Media reported that Sachin Waze had sent me a letter. I have not yet seen the letter as I have been in Nagpur for the last two days. I will find out if such a letter is received and respond. We would certainly conduct a proper inquiry into emerging (disclosures)," he told reporters.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
