Shiv Sena's mouth piece Saamana takes a dig at Devendra Fadnavis in phone tapping case

Shiv Sena took a dim view of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ claim that the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had tried to put him in jail, and asked the BJP leader in which case was he fearing arrest.

An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana claimed that IPS officers had threatened MVA legislators to support Fadnavis and spied on them by tapping their phones. Fadnavis should explain if such illegal phone tapping is a crime or not, it said.

Maharashtra’s political culture has never seen instances of arrest of political opponents and harassment of their family members, the Marathi publication said. After the 2019 Assembly polls, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post.

Thackeray later tied-up with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form the MVA in the state. His government collapsed in June last year after a revolt against the Sena leadership by Eknath Shinde and 39 other legislators. On June 30, Shinde became the chief minister with BJP leader Fadnavis as his deputy.

Fadnavis recently said the previous MVA government had given a target to then Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to put me in jail, but the police officer could not succeed as he had done nothing wrong.

Reacting to it, the Saamana editorial on Wednesday asked, Why is Fadnavis scared that he may be arrested? In which case was he fearing arrest and what connection did he have with the case Fadnavis should have clarified, it said. In the last few days, Fadnavis has been speaking blatant lies, it claimed, adding this is not the sanskar of the Sangh (RSS).

Fadnavis should also explain if such illegal tapping is a crime or not, the editorial said. The investigating officers in the case visited Fadnavis when he was the leader of opposition and took his statement respectfully. There was no need to make an issue out of it, the Marathi daily said.