MUMBAI (TIP): The political slugfest over the working of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) took another turn on with allegations flying between NCP spokesperson and minister Nawab Malik and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. A day after tweeting a photograph of Fadnavis’s wife Amruta with an alleged drug peddler, Jaideep Rana, Malik demanded a probe either by the CBI or a judicial inquiry into Fadnavis’s alleged nexus with a drug peddler.

“I have tweeted two pictures of Rana, one with Amruta and another with Devendra Fadnavis. It was not a coincidence or taken on the sidelines of an event. It appears that Rana knows the Fadnavis family for a long time. He was the main financier of the project (the River Anthem song featuring Amruta Fadnavis). A known drug peddler, Rana has been arrested under the NDPS Act and is currently in Sabarmati jail,” Malik said.

Soon after, Fadnavis hit back, alleging Malik had links with the underworld.

Nawab Malik attempted a ‘fuska fataka’ (dud cracker), but now, after Diwali, I will drop a bomb! I will expose his underworld links and will send all evidence to Shri Sharad Pawar ji too,” Devendra Fadnavis tweeted on Monday after Nawab Malik alleged the former CM had links with drug peddlers.

Apparently, the picture of alleged peddler Jaideep Rana was taken during shooting of the River Anthem song, featuring Amruta, Devendra Fadnavis, then finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, and a few bureaucrats.

Rana was allegedly finance head of the project. After Malik tweeted pictures of Rana with the Fadnavis family, his name was removed from the video description, Malik alleged. “It’s time to discuss the relationship between drug peddlers and BJP. I have reasons to believe it was during the tenure of Devendra Fadnavis that Maharashtra witnessed a sudden growth in drug peddling,” Malik said.

The former CM, who called a press conference, retorted, “Not only my wife, people clicked pictures with me as well. These people had come with the organisers of River March. Merely because pictures are clicked does not mean we are associated with them.”

Fadnavis added, “Malik’s son-in-law was caught with drugs. This has happened in his house. The way Malik said that the entire BJP is associated with the drug mafia, then applying his ratio, does that mean the entire NCP is a drug mafia? To release a picture of my wife shows his mentality.”

Malik said that Fadnavis was hatching a conspiracy to defame his political opponents and supervising appointments in probe agencies like the NCB “for cheap publicity”. “Look at the appointment of NCB’s Sameer Wankhede. Most of the raids conducted by Wankhede are fake,” he reiterated. Malik took a dig at vice-chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Arun Haldar, saying he had granted a clean chit to Wankhede without verifying documents. “I am told Haldar visited the residence of Wankhede, glanced through a few documents shown by him and granted him a clean chit. Why so much hurry, particularly when Haldar is holding a constitutional post?” Malik asked. Opposition leader in the council Pravin Darekar said Malik is a “complete failure and hence was making allegations. He demanded Malik’s resignation as minister.

                Source: TOI