Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would find a ‘fit case’ in the alleged financial irregularities in the purchase of land by the Ram Temple trust. Raut also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive should pass a resolution to demand for an investigation by these agencies into the alleged irregularities.

Raut’s allegations come after the Maharashtra unit of the BJP passed a resolution in its executive demanding the CBI and the ED carry out a probe against the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab. This is also the second time Raut has asked for an investigation into the allegations.

“Are the CBI and the ED your party workers or members of the IT cell?” Raut asked the BJP while accusing them of lowering the stature of these central investigating agencies by targeting political rivals.

“It is unfair to misuse these central investigating agencies. This needs to stop. It is understandable when these agencies are probing cases associated with national security, loss to national treasury or cases related to money laundering. Why are you maligning the image of these agencies,” Raut was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. He also expressed confidence that the Uddhav Thackeray-led MahaVikasAghadi (MVA) government will complete two years in office this year and said that it will also complete its full tenure. “These tactics to destabilize the government will not work,” Raut further added. Maharashtra home minister DilipWalsePatil said he found it strange that the ED searched Deshmukh’s residence after the state BJP passed a resolution demanding the probe against Ajit Pawar and Anil Parab.

“It is time to focus on the pandemic but the BJP is doing the wrong things at the wrong time,” Patil said. Workers of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) protested against the ED by holding a demonstration outside Deshmukh's residence. The NCP workers were led by the party’s city unit chief DuneshwarPethe. They raised slogans against the central government, calling it ‘autocratic’.