Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Pravin Darekar on Tuesday alleged in the Maharashtra council that a conspiracy was hatched to frame Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and then-minister Eknath Shinde in a false case during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

At the time, BJP MLA Fadnavis was Leader of Opposition in the assembly, while Shinde was a member of the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet holding the urban development ministry. After the collapse of the MVA government, Shinde took over as CM in June 2022 with Fadnavis as his deputy.

Darekar made the allegation while speaking on a point of information in the upper house of the legislature, which is having its winter session in Nagpur, and demanded a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the alleged conspiracy.

Cabinet minister Shambhuraj Desai, speaking on behalf of the Mahayuti government, said the issue raised by Darekar was serious and told the house an SIT headed by a senior IPS officer will be formed to probe the matter.

Darekar said audio clips purportedly linked to the conspiracy were played on TV channels on Monday. The ruling party MLC claimed he was in possession of a pen drive containing an audio clip of purported conversation between former Maharashtra director general of police Sanjay Pandey and then-ACP Laxmikant Patil.

Darekar claimed that in the audio clip, Pandey is purportedly heard asking Patil, then posted in adjoining Thane city, to register a case and arrest Fadnavis and Shinde, now a deputy CM in the Mahayuti government.

Desai said it was important to find out who was behind the alleged conspiracy and misuse of power at that time, referring to the MVA government's tenure (November 2019 to June 2022).

The BJP legislator also demanded immediate suspension of Patil.

Cabinet minister Desai said he will speak about the matter with Fadnavis.

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