Sack minister Deshmukh, register FIR, demands Cong's Nirupam

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam Monday asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to sack Maharashtra Co-operation Minister Subhash Deshmukh in an alleged forgery case and sought that an FIR be registered against the minister.

Nirupam has in the past accused the minister of forging documents and fabricating permissions to get a contract for Lokmangal Multistate Co-operative Society's milk processing plant in Solapur. The co-operative society was founded by Deshmukh.

The minister has routinely denied these allegations in the past.

Nirupam had also charged the minister with duping the state of Rs 24 crore.

"Deshmukh's society has engaged in big corruption and I had unravelled it in a press conference. Since the corruption stood proved, the chief minister had ordered the society to return the Rs 5 crore grant," Nirupam claimed in a statement.

"However, the chief minister's order doesn't speak about registering an FIR. The chief minister himself is saving the corrupt minister," Nirupam alleged.

He said an FIR was registered in connection with this issue at Solapur police station on November 27 but it did not name Deshmukh, adding that it mentioned Deshmukh's son Rohan and eight directors of the society.

"We demand that the FIR must include Deshmukh's name as it is under him that the meetings of the society took place. He (Deshmukh) is the main accused and he should be removed from his post," Nirupam said.