Dubbing IAS officer Amitabh Gupta’s decision to give “safe passage” to scam accused Wadhawan brothers and 21 other family members to Mahabaleshwar amid lockdown period as a “conspiracy” to defame the MVA Government, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that Gupta had been appointed by the State Principal Secretary (Home) by former chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
Indirectly accusing Fadnavis of behind the “conspiracy” to malign the Uddhav Thackeray government, the Shjiv Sena – in an editorial published its mouth-piece “Saamana” said: “The current leader of the Opposition in the Assembly (Fadnavis) says that Gupta might not have given travel permission to Wadhavans on his own. There must be someone behind it.. Why is he making all kind of baseless allegations?. The Wadhawan incident happened, when the entire Maharashtra government was pre-occupied with waging a war against Coronavirus.
“The IAS officer, who gave the ‘safe passage” to Wadhawan, was reportedly appointed in the Home department during the previous regime by Fadnavis himself. By giving special concessions to the Wadhawans, the same IAS officer has tried to put the state government in an embarrassing situation. That it was Fadnavis who had reportedly handpicked and appointed as Principal Secretary (Home) explains who must have been behind the IAS officer concerned who asked him to give travel permission to Wadhavans,” the Saamana editorial said.
“We are pretty sure that a conspiracy was hatched to defame MVA government. If the state government were to help out Wadhawans, then why did the Satara district officials apprehend them and put them under quarantine in Mahabaleshwar? Why did the Satara district (in which Mahabaleshwar falls) ignore the travel permission letter given by Gupta and act legally against them?,” the editorial said.
“The Maharashtra government has sent Gupta on compulsory leave. Since he is an Indian Administrative Officer, it is for the Centre to initiate further action against Gupta. One should ask the Centre as to what action it will take against Gupta and who was actually prompted him to issue to travel permission to the Principal Secretary (Home),” the Saamana said.
It may be recalled that on April 10, the Maharashtra government sent Principal Secretary (Home) Amitabh Gupta on ‘compulsory leave’ for allowing the scam-tainted Wadhawan brothers and their family members to travel from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar on Wednesday during the ongoing lockdown period.
The State government instituted an inquiry against Gupta under Additional chief Secretary (Finance) Additional Chief Secretary Manoj Sonic it also registered an offence under sections 188, 269, 270, 34 of IPC and section 51 (B)of Disaster Management Act and section 11 of Maharashtra Covid-19 Regulations”.
Twenty three members of Wadhawan family were detained by the police at Panchgani on Thursday night while travelling in five cars from Khandala to another hill station of Mahabaleswar in Satara district of western Maharashtra. They were carrying with them a “To whomsoever it may concern” issued to them by Gupta on his personal head, permitting the Wadhawans and others to cross from Khandala in Pune to Mahabaleshwar in Satara.
“This is to just inform you that following are well known to me as they are my family friends and travelling from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar for family emergency… Hence you are here by informed through this letter to co-operate with them to reach their destination,” Gupta’s letter
read.
The Saamana editorial said that one hand the ordinary people were adhering to the lockdown norms and staying at home, while on the other there could not be different set of rules to the moneyed people. “This proves that the people are vigilant and the government machinery is not corrupt. If anyone in the government is involved in the Wadhawan safe passage incident, they would have stopped the Satara district officials from taking action against the Wadhawans,” the editorial said.
“The Uddhav Thackeray believes in the rule of law. It treats everyone equally. It does not differentiate between the poor and the rich. The people ( Fadnavis and other BJP leaders) who are speaking out now will shut their mouth, if one goes into the details of the party to which Wadhwans donated money to.
No one should stoop this low to malign the Government,” the Saamana editorial said.
Advocating against indulging in politics during this crucial period, the Saamana editorial said: “There will be lot of time for politics in future. On one day on Saturday, as many as 1000 people tested positive for Coronavirus in the country. The Maharashtra government is waging a war against Coronavirus. The Opposition should not indulge in acts like this”.