NCP leaders threaten legal action over allegations in Thane

THANE: Local leaders from the NCP (Ajit Pawar) camp have threatened to approach the Income Tax department and various govt regulatory authorities regarding alleged violations committed by senior NCP-SP netas (including MLA Jitendra Awhad) from Thane.
The warning was issued by key NCP state functionaries Najeeb Mulla and Anand Paranjape, Friday, a day after Awhad and his business associate - former personal assistant Abhijit Pawar levelled serious allegations on the deputy CM Ajit Pawar supporters accusing them of being involved in serious criminal acts and blackmailing Awhad aides to coerce them to switch loyalties.
Awhad and Abhijit had jointly addressed the media Thursday after the latter switched back to his mentor’s camp two days after being inducted into the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Paranjape accused the NCP-SP leaders to be unnecessarily targeting their leader Ajit Pawar and said that while they have been maintaining a silence till now, they would now retaliate in a befitting manner.
“I didn’t expect the level of politics to stoop to such low level… I kept quiet till now and now we will approach the IT dept and various others state agencies including the anti-corruption bureau and alert them about the illegal activities, violations committed by them (Abhijit and Awhad)… I became a scapegoat in the builder Suraj Parmar suicide case…
The court has also cleared my name (in the Rabodi activist murder case) and I will file defamation case if they associate me with it again... I challenge them to call for a Special Investigation Team to be formed to probe all the allegations they made on Thursday and will now send a weekly reminder to Awhad about its status,” Mulla said.
NCP functionary Veeru Waghmare claimed Abhijit had approached them and expressed desire to switch loyalties as he was upset with Awhad for allegedly sidelining him and politically elevating his daughter and nephew.
Later, Awhad while briefly interacting with the media dismissed all allegations and said he was ready for any form of investigation on his assets and property.