Mumbai: One of the significant changes in the Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday was the shifting of Vilasrao Deshmukh from Heavy Industries to Rural Development and Panchyati Raj. The move is being seen as ironic by many as it comes just a month after he was pulled up by the Supreme Court for stopping police action
on a complaint by farmers against a money lender, who is the father of a Congress legislator, Dilip Sananda.
The case pertains to the time when Vilasrao was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The court had said: "The Chief Minister has no business to interfere with the functioning of the 1946 act regulating money lending in the state."
Dismissing the state's appeal, the court enforced a cost of Rs10 lakh on the state government.
In 2006 when Deshmukh was Chief Minister, his private secretary had allegedly called a police station in Vidarbha's Buldhana district and asked them not to register a case.
The issue originated from Vidarbha which reports the highest number of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in the country. It hence made headlines and saw strong political reactions with Shiv Sena leaders demanding Deshmukh's immediate resignation.
While Deshmukh had refused to comment on the case, Congress MLA Dilip Sananda had said his secretary did call the police station but asked them to conduct a fair inquiry.
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