The political conflict over the allegations of corruption made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh intensified on Tuesday with former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis petitioning the Union home ministry for a CBI probe and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) dismissing it as a conspiracy to topple the Maharashtra government.

Fadnavis, who on Tuesday disputed the claims made by NCP chief Sharad Pawar about home minister Anil Deshmukh being in quarantine during the time Singh accused him of pressuring officers to collect extortion money, approached the Union home secretary in Delhi and submitted “evidence” in a sealed envelope while demanding a CBI inquiry.

BJP leader Fadnavis said the Maharashtra government was trying to defend Deshmukh despite serious allegations of a transfer racket and instructions for collecting Rs 100 crore in extortion money per month.

Fadnavis had earlier said at a media conference that police records of VIP movement in Mumbai showed Deshmukh had gone to Sahyadri guest house on February 17 and also met officers at his residence on February 24, a period during which he was claimed to have been in quarantine after contracting Covid-19.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik confronted Fadnavis, saying the former chief minister was trying to spread falsehood and that he himself had admitted he didn’t know whether Deshmukh had indeed moved around.

Malik said Deshmukh was in home quarantine in Mumbai and had gone out only for workouts.

On the allegation of a transfer racket run by the Maharashtra home minister, Malik said: “Officers mentioned in the report were never transferred. Fadnavis is trying to defame the government despite knowing the rules. No minister can directly transfer anyone. There is a Police Establishment Board for transfer of top-level IPS officers. This board makes proposals for transfers. The home ministry scrutinises the proposals and sends them to the chief minister.”

He said two officers who had gone to Delhi after the change of government in Maharashtra were working for the BJP. Malik singled out Rashmi Shukla, who was a commissioner in the intelligence department, accusing her of tapping phones without permission.

Arguing that tapping phones of people without permission was a crime, Malik said: “Rashmi Shukla was working as a BJP agent. Phones of senior leaders were also tapped during the process of government formation.”

Fadnavis had said that Uddhav Thackeray overlooked a “very sensitive and explosive” report regarding corruption in transfer of IPS officers submitted by the director-general of police. He told reporters that the then commissioner of intelligence, Rashmi Shukla, reportedly intercepted some phone calls pertaining to police transfers and submitted a report to then DGP Subodh Jaiswal who subsequently sent it to the state government on August 25, 2020.

The Congress on Tuesday evening called a meeting of its senior leaders and ministers to discuss the controversy. Although the party has extended support to the NCP line that there was a conspiracy to destabilise the government, there is considerable unease among a section of leaders about the grave allegations against the home minister.

Purely as a matter of strategy, many Congress leaders believe the political battle could have been fought better by removing the home minister till the inquiry cleared him.