Mumbai: The conflict between the Shiv Sena and Independent legislator couple Navneet and Ravi Rana has escalated, with the former alleging that Navneet has links to the underworld.
Navneet, the MP for Amravati, meanwhile wrote to the Delhi Police commissioner Wednesday accusing Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut of making casteist remarks against her.
Navneet and her husband Ravi, the MLA for Badnera in Amravati district, were arrested over the weekend on charges of sedition and allegedly creating animosity between communities.
The arrest came after the Rana couple proclaimed that they would chant the Hanuman Chalisa at ‘Matoshree’, the personal residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, sparking aggressive protests by members of the Shiv Sena.
Raut Tuesday tweeted a page from Navneet’s election affidavit showing a liability of Rs 80 lakh to Yusuf Lakdawala, who he said had links with the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
नवनीत राणा ने युसुफ लकड़ावाला से ₹80 लाख का लोन लिया था,जिनकी जेल में मौत हो गई थी।उसी लकड़ावाला को @dir_ed ने मनी लॉन्ड्रिंग मामले में गिरफ्तार किया था व उसके डी गैंग से संबंध भी थे।
मेरा सवाल-क्या ED ने इसकी जांच की ? राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा का मामला है! @KiritSomaiya @sanjayp_1 pic.twitter.com/u0h8cmT0He
— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) April 26, 2022
Lakdawala was a builder and film financier who the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested in a money laundering case. According to the ED’s allegations, he had also forged papers to buy a prime plot at Khandala, a hill station in Pune district. Lakdawala died at Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail in September last year.
‘Will write to Lok Sabha Speaker’
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai Wednesday, Raut said, “Rs 80 lakh was deposited from Lakdawala’s account into the account of Navneet Rana. Why was it not inquired into? My question is to the ED. For Rs 20 lakh, 25 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, you put our ministers behind bars, you attach our properties. Then for Lakdawala who was in your custody in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case, you called all those who had financial dealings with Lakdawala — so why did the Rana couple escape from inquiry? This is a very big question.”
Raut said he would write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla with this information so that “he knows exactly who he is backing”.
Earlier this week, Rana had written a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging that she was being mistreated in the police lock-up, abused on caste lines and even denied water. She also said that the police action against her was only at the behest of CM Thackeray.
Following her letter, the Lok Sabha secretariat asked the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, for a factual note on the arrest of the Rana couple, and also a response to her allegations of mistreatment at the hands of the police. The MVA government as well as Mumbai Commissioner of Police Sanjay Pandey have rejected her charges.
‘Raut should give material to investigative agencies, not Twitter’
Raut also targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has wholeheartedly backed the Rana couple, criticising the police action against them and lambasting the MVA government’s rule as “Hitler’s rule”.
“No political party should stand by people who are creating instability in this country, those who want to break this country in the name of religion and are using underworld connections to do that,” Raut said.
“I am asking Devendra Fadnavis. Why is he silent on this issue? In fact, the BJP should demand an ED inquiry on this,” he added, referring to leader of the opposition and former Maharashtra CM Fadnavis.
BJP Maharashtra spokesperson Keshav Upadhye told ThePrint that what Raut says doesn’t have any credibility. “He has made allegations like these in the past, too, without any basis. His allegations have no credibility. But, if at all there is any truth to his accusations now, he should take the material to the investigative agency for them to look into it instead of tweeting about it.”
“Our support is not for any individual, but if the Maharashtra government treats someone like this, we will speak out against it,” he added.
Also read: Navneet & Ravi Rana — Maharashtra’s notorious political gymnasts who found love at Ramdev camp