Reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) criticism of the Maharashtra government for the detention of Kirit Somaiya, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that this was done to maintain law and order in the state.
"The legal proceedings were done by the home ministry and had nothing to do with the office of the chief minister," stated Raut.
"If a person poses a threat to the maintenance of law and order in an area, the home ministry has the right to take legal action," he added.
He further said that the state government's stability is not affected by BJP's allegations against the ministers or "using the central investigating agency to frame them".
"The decision whether these ministers are actually guilty will be taken by the court," he stated.
Somaiya was detained at Karad Railway Station in the Satara district of Maharashtra in the early hours of Monday. He was expected to visit Kohlapur today and was en route the district via train.
Ahead of his visit, Kolhapur District Collector had issued prohibitory orders against him and imposed Section 144, prohibiting gatherings on September 20 and 21.
The BJP leader was scheduled to visit the properties owned by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif in which he claims corruption has taken place. Somaiya had also levelled allegations of money laundering against Maharashtra Cabinet Ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Parab.
BJP slammed the Maharashtra government over Somaiya's detention and had alleged that the leader was being targeted because he was exposing scams related to corrupt ministers of the government.
Earlier in the day, Mushrif said that he will file Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Somaiya.
"The allegation which is being made by Kirit Somaiya is part of BJPs big conspiracy and Chandrakant Patil is the mastermind of this. I have been very vocal about the Centre using central agencies against Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and on the issue of Parambir Singh. It is the reason I am being framed by BJP through Kirit Somaiya to stop me," he stated.
( With inputs from ANI )
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