Maharashtra: Ajit Pawar's son meets history-sheeter, Dy CM says "should not have happened"

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A day after his son met a history-sheeter, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said the meeting was wrong and should have been avoided.

Pawar said he would gather all details of the meeting between Parth Pawar and gangster Gajanan Marne, though he added that party workers may have taken his son there, newswire PTI reported.

"After the incident I categorically told police such elements should not come near him. It can happen to any political leader," the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader claimed.

"What happened was wrong. I am gathering all the details. It seems party workers took Parth there. It should not have happened. I will speak to him," the Baramati MLA added.

Pawar said a history-sheeter was once inducted into the party but was removed immediately after his past came to light.

Photographs of the meeting between Parth Pawar and Marne along with several Nationalist Congress Party workers was widely circulated on social media.

Queried about MLA Rohit Pawar of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, the deputy chief minister said it was the job of probe agencies to summon people for inquiry and it was the duty of people to answer truthfully.

"I was also questioned by ACB for five hours but did not do propaganda by gathering a crowd," he said.

Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of party supremo Sharad Pawar, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday for questioning in connection with a probe into the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam and left after more than 11 hours.

Hundreds of Nationalist Congress Party workers had gathered at the party office in South Mumbai and raised slogans in support of Rohit Pawar and staged a protest against the ED.

Meanwhile, Pawar on Thursday took a swipe at his uncle Sharad Pawar's decision to form an alliance with the Congress within only a few months after raising the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins.

Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against Sharad Pawar last year and split the Nationalist Congress Party, also asked why he was being criticised for joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party when his uncle had formed an alliance with the Shiv Sena two years earlier, newswire PTI reported.

"In 1999, a school of thought emerged (within Congress) that a foreign-origin person should not be India's prime minister. Senior leaders like Pawar saheb (Sharad Pawar), P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar took this stand. We were young, and we also supported that stand. In June 1999, the NCP was formed (after Sharad Pawar was expelled from Congress), and in October 1999, we joined Vilasrao Deshmukh's government in the state," he said. (With inputs from PTI)