Amid the Opposition’s clamour for his resignation over the arrest of a man claiming himself to be his “personal aide” for allegedly demanding a `30-crore bribe from an entrepreneur over a land allotment issue, Maharashtra’s Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse on Monday dismissed as “baseless” the allegations against him and offered to subject himself to a probe by the CBI or any other agency.
After both the Opposition NCP and Congress upped ante over the arrest of his `personal aide” Gajanan Patil, Khadse also threatened to file defamation case against Dr Ramesh Jadhav, an economist associated with International Society for Excellence In Projects Management and Research, who had approached the State ACB with an allegation that Patil had initially demanded bribe of Rs 1 crore and scaled up the demand for a review of a previous government order regarding allotment of a 10-hectare revenue land at Nilje in Kalyan taluka of Thane district.
Acting on a complaint from Dr Jadhav, the State ACB laid a trap for Patil and arrested him red-handed on Friday.
Talking to media persons here on Monday, dubbed as “baseless” the allegations made against him in connection with the arrest of Patil by the State ACB and said, “Whatever the allegations are being made against me are baseless.”