Mumbai/New Delhi, July 29 (IANS): The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders here on Monday claimed that a person close to the BJP and others allegedly threatened ex-Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to implicate top MVA leaders or face jail.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, Sanjay Raut, and Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Anil Deshmukh identified the person as Samit Balasaheb Kadam, heading an outfit called the Jansurajya Yuva Shakti Maharashtra.

Raut said that Kadam allegedly met MVA’s ex-Home Minister Deshmukh several times and asked him to level allegations in three affidavits prepared by the BJP, or face the consequences.

Concurring, Deshmukh added that Kadam had met him at least five to six times and wanted him to ‘trap’ people like (ex-CM) Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray, current Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and his son Parth Pawar and other bigwigs, “but I had flatly refused”.

Both Raut and Deshmukh contended that Kadam was close to the BJP-RSS and was reportedly sent by the (current) BJP Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

When confronted by the media on Monday, Kadam rubbished the allegations against him outright, and said “Deshmukh has lost his bearings” and “there’s no point in replying to Raut”.

“Fadnavis is the villain in all this. He has blatantly misused the Home Ministry and the investigating agencies against the Opposition parties/leaders. Who is this Samit Kadam? What great contributions has he made to the country? Why is he accorded a Y-grade security by the state government? How many other shady people have been given police security by the Mahayuti regime? We will reveal it all,” Raut warned on Monday.

The SS(UBT) MP said that on February 8, 2022, he had written a four-page letter to the then Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman, M Venkaiah Naidu, detailing the harassment, threats and pressure tactics he had faced, and “this letter is on the government’s record”.

Raut said that Kadam is a ‘middleman’ of Miraj and close to all the BJP-RSS leaders, “but Fadnavis will deny having any links with him… So, here are their photos”.

He reiterated how the MVA leaders first get hints, then warnings followed by threats, and “those who succumb join them and all their sins are white-washed, but those who don’t pay heed, face cases by central agencies or jail. Deshmukh and I have experienced it.”

“On the other hand, even if an ordinary gully activist refuses to join them, they are jailed but all the big names like Praful Patel (NCP), Ashok Chavan (ex-Congress, now BJP), and Bhavana Gawali (Shiv Sena) have come out clear of all the charges they faced,” he said.

State BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule rushed to defend Fadnavis and accused the Opposition of targeting and maligning his image with false allegations.