CBI Registers Case Against Maharashtra’s Ex-Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, PP Pravin Patil, Pune Police Officers For False FIR Against BJP Leaders

Reported by Mubarak Ansari & Tikam Shekhawat
Pune/New Delhi, 8th September 2024: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Pravin Pandit Chavan, and several high-ranking police officials for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to falsely implicate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in fabricated criminal cases. The FIR was lodged by the CBI’s Special Crime Branch-III in New Delhi following a detailed preliminary enquiry.

According to the CBI, the case is based on a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) registered in 2022 after receiving pen drives containing audio and video recordings. These recordings, allegedly handed over by then Maharashtra Opposition Leader Devendra Fadnavis, were subsequently forwarded to the state’s CID for further investigation. The pen drives purportedly depict a conspiracy involving Chavan and senior police officials to frame BJP leaders in false cases.

The enquiry was triggered by four applications filed by Maharashtra MLAs Girish Mahajan, Mangesh Chavan, Jaykumar Rawal, and Sanjay Kute. They alleged that SPP Pravin Pandit Chavan, in collaboration with police officers and former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, orchestrated a plot to implicate BJP leaders in fabricated cases.

The accusations include:
1. Conspiracy to Frame BJP Leaders: The pen drives allegedly show Chavan conspiring with police officers to file false cases against BJP leaders, tutoring witnesses, and arranging illegal payments to facilitate the investigations.
2. Fabrication of Evidence: The recordings reveal instructions on how to manipulate raids, plant evidence, and register false cases under severe charges such as the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
3. Financial Misconduct: The enquiry suggests that hotel bookings and payments for search teams were made by Chavan to further the conspiracy.

The CBI enquiry found that Chavan, in collaboration with Vijay Bhaskarrao Patil, a complainant in FIR registered at Kothrud police station, and police officers Pournima Gaikwad (the then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 3, Pune) and Sushma Chavan (Assistant Commissioner of Police), played a pivotal role in fabricating witness statements and evidence to falsely implicate BJP leaders.

In particular, the investigation revealed that a “zero FIR” was registered in December 2020 at Nimbhora Police Station in Jalgaon, alleging a 2018 incident in Pune. The FIR was later transferred to Pune’s Kothrud Police Station and registered as Cr. No. 03/2021. The case, which was supposedly an effort to gain control over the Jalgaon Zilla Maratha Vidya Prasarak Sahakari Samaj Limited, an educational institution, was found to have been a fabricated attempt to implicate political rivals.

The CBI has now registered a Regular Case (RC) against Chavan, Deshmukh, Patil, Gaikwad, and Chavan under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing incorrect documents), and 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with other substantive offences.