Maharashtra BJP chief demands sacking of Anil Deshmukh, Jitendra Awhad

MUMBAI: State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday demanded removal of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh for his `failure’ to avoid the Palghar lynching incident.nnIn a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday, Patil also referred to alleged assault on a man at the house of Jitendra Awhad, another NCP member in the state cabinet.nn”The chief minister must have been apprised of the incident (of lynching of three men in Palghar) on the next day after it happened, however, it took Union home minister Amit Shah’s phone call and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raising his voice to force Thackeray to speak on the issue after four days,” Patil said.nn”The state has witnessed several criminal incidents such as a person was beaten up at a minister’s bungalow while a senior IPS official issued a letter to the family of an accused in a financial fraud,” Patil said.nnThe BJP leader was apparently referring to an alleged incident of assault on a man, over an obscene social media post, at Awhad’s bungalow, and the permission given to scam- accused DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and his family to travel during lockdown.nnPatil further said that Deshmukh’s department “miserably failed” to prevent a huge mob from gathering at Bandra railway station in Mumbai last week, following rumours that special trains were being run to take migrant workers back to their home states.nnBoth Deshmukh and housing minister Awhad should be removed from their posts, he demanded.nnSource: Press Trust of India