Congress leader Nirupam asks Maharashtra CM to sack 'corrupt' Minister

Mumbai, Oct 22 (IANS) Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam on Monday accused Maharashtra's Minister for Cooperatives Subhash Deshmukh of fraudulently withdrawing funds from the government, and asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to sack him immediately.

The Mumbai Congress chief said that Deshmukh and his son Rohan duped the state government of more than Rs 24 crore using fake documents. 

Nirupam said that Deshmukh got a sanction for Rs. 24.81 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture under the National Agricultural Development Programme.

"This amount was sanctioned by the Minister in the name of setting up a milk chilling and milk powder manufacturing plant in Solapur. However, the minister and his son Rohan withdrew Rs 5 crores in two phases for their firm, Lokmangal Multi-State Cooperative Society Ltd.," Nirupam alleged.

The Minister submitted several forged and fabricated documents from various government departments, Nirupam said.

"However, when the concerned officials of these departments were asked to provide copies of permissions issued by their offices, they said that no licences, permissions or orders of any kind were issued by them to the Minister's Lokmangal Group," Nirupam said.

Citing information received under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, he added that four plants run by the Lokmangal Group are non-functional while one plant doesn't exist at all.

When contacted by IANS, an aide to the Minister declined to comment.

"Why is the CM hesitant in taking action against this corrupt Minister if he is not hand-in-glove with him," Nirupam asked.

Nirupam said that a few years ago, the Lokmangal Group had been barred by the Securities & Exchange Board of India for mobilizing around Rs 75 crore from more than 4,700 investors between 2009 and 2012 in violation of the Companies Act.