BJP rallies behind Khadse, AAP calls for thorough probe

Expressing surprise over the "speed" with which Mumbai Police gave Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse a clean chit on the issue of his phone number purportedly figuring on the call list of mob boss Dawood Ibrahim's house in Karachi, AAP today sought a thorough probe into it even as BJP rubbished the charge as baseless.
Rallying behind its senior leader, BJP state president Raosaheb Danve said the allegation against the minister was baseless and ruled out his resignation from the cabinet.
Danve also rejected the suggestions that Khadse is a victim of the infighting within the party and of lacking rapport with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"The BJP is a well defined and structured party. Our people do not have such scope (of targeting each other) and believe in collective responsibility," he said.
Noting that she was surprised at the speed with which Mumbai Police gave a clean chit to Khadse, AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon said her party would wait and watch for a few days and will move the court if needed.
"We trust Mumbai Police but we are really surprised at the speed of the clean chit given to the minister. The charges are serious and deserve a through investigation," Preeti, a national spokesperson of AAP, told PTI.

She had on Saturday sought Khadse's removal from the Cabinet, alleging that calls were made from Dawood's mansion to Khadse's mobile phone, a charge which the minister rubbished as "baseless" saying the phone number mentioned was not in use for last one year.

"His number received several calls from Dawood Ibrahim's wife Mehjabeen Shaikh's number between September 4, 2015 and April 5, 2016," Preeti claimed and asked police to investigate the matter.
AAP, by procuring a copy of the purported bills obtained through an "ethical hacker", had claimed that the particular number was "active" till last month and the last generated bill was for Rs 683.22 as on April 23 which was dispatched to Khadse's home address in Muktainagar tehsil in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra.

"This is a national security matter and ideally the central government that should investigate it," the AAP leader added.)
Khadse yesterday got a clean chit from police, who said no calls were made or received on his phone from Dawood's as claimed by AAP.
Fadnavis also termed the charge against his colleague as "unsubstantiated".