Mumbai, Jul 28 (PTI) A day after the arrest of Eknath Khadse’s son-in-law in a drugs case, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday claimed the former Maharashtra minister was being targeted for linking BJP leader Girish Mahajan with an alleged honey trap scandal.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Raut dubbed the arrest of Khadse’s son-in-law Pranjal Khewalkar as suspicious and also slammed the ruling BJP, alleging it was “targeting” family members of political rivals and maligning them.
The former Maharashtra minister’s home was attacked to shut his mouth, he said in an apparent reference to Khadse.
Pranjal Khewalkar, the husband of Eknath Khadse’s daughter Rohini Khadse, was arrested along with six others after the police raided a “drug party” at an apartment in Pune in the early hours of Sunday and claimed to have seized narcotics, hookah set ups and liquor from there.
Rohini Khadse is the state head of the NCP (SP) women’s wing.
“The entire matter is suspicious,” Raut said.
“Khadse has been talking about honey traps for the last three days. He is talking about the involvement of (state cabinet minister) Girish Mahajan in this but there is no probe related to it. Now that Khadse is talking, his son-in-law has been arrested,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
Such incidents were occurring everywhere in Maharashtra, Raut said.
He also accused the police of having become a servant and targeting those who speak against the government.
Mahajan recently accused Khadse of trying to malign his image by raising baseless allegations in connection with an alleged honeytrap scandal.
The fight between Khadse, a BJP veteran who quit the party to join the then undivided NCP in 2020, and Mahajan is not new. Both belong to the Jalgaon district.
“We followed a principle that family members (of political rivals) were never dragged. Unfortunately, people from the BJP are now targeting family members, maligning them,” Raut charged.
He claimed that after the arrest of Khadse’s son-in-law, Mahajan was just short of breaking into a dance.
NCP leader and former minister Nawab Malik’s son-in-law was arrested in a similar NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case and so was actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, Raut pointed out. PTI PR GK
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