Maharashta government orders probe against yet another former NCP Minister

MUMBAI: In what could raise the hackles of the Congress and NCP leaders, the Maharashtra government has cleared the decks for an ACB probe against yet another former Minister from the Congress-NCP government. On Wednesday the Maharashtra Home department headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis forwarded the file for an ‘open inquiry’ against Former Maharashtra Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Laxman Dhoble in a disproportionate assests case to the Chief Secretary Swadhin Kshatriya.

Dhoble who was a NCP minister and was an MLA from Mohol constituency in Solapur is being accused of having assets worth hundreds of crores. Interestingly many of the complaints against Dhoble to the ACB have been made by local NCP activists themselves from Solapur it self.

The ACB had been waiting for the government go ahead to probe him since last year. In April- 2014 the ACB also put up Dhoble and other Minister’s name on its website against it wanted to proceed but was waiting for government sanction. The names were however later removed from the ACB website.

The former Minister was in the news last year after a 42 year old former staffer from one of the educational institutions that he was running filed a case of rape against him.

With the Home department clearing the decks for an inquiry against Dhoble, the latter becomes the fifth former Minister from the Congress-NCP government to face an ACB probe.

Immediately after the Sena joined the government, Fadnavis had cleared the probe against former Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar amd former Irrigation Minister for their role in the irrigation scam. The Chief Minister has also given the sanction to the ACB to probe former PWD Minister Chaggan Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan scam and on Tuesday the Home department also cleared the decks for the ACB to probe former Congress Co-operation Minister Harshvardhan Patil in a co-operative bank scam.

Corruption among the Congress-NCP leaders was one of the main planks on which the BJP came to power and Fadnavis had vowed before the elections that they would initiate action against those Ministers and officials who were involved in graft.