'SC, Bombay HC must suo motu intervene to stop misuse of central agencies'

The Maharashtra Congress has appealed to the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court to intervene suo motu and stop the misuse of central investigative agencies by the BJP, in Mumbai on Thursday.

State Congress President Nana Patole flayed the manner in which the central probe agencies are being deployed "to silence voices raised against the BJP and the Centre" and now the courts must intervene on their own to protect the country's democratic system.

The comments came while referring to the raids on prominent Nagpur-based lawyer Satish Uke by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who is fighting Patole's Rs 500 crore defamation suit against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in the infamous phone-tapping case.

"He is our lawyer in this (defamation) case. He filed the petition. Now suddenly the ED has raided his house and confiscated the case file, laptops, mobiles, etc, and detained him. Adv Uke was also working on other cases including the suspicious death of Judge B.H. Loya and this action is to suppress all who speak out against the BJP," Patole said.

He said the central probe agencies are straying from their functions like probing international money-laundering scams, drug trafficking, FEMA, FERA violations, terror funds, human trafficking or flesh trade.

Patole accused the Centre of using the central agencies to intimidate the Opposition parties by such actions and attempting to topple duly elected state governments.

"Democracy has been overthrown and replaced by a dictatorship, an undeclared state of Emergency exists in the country. All systems have been demolished and we are fighting to save the democratic rule in the country. We humbly appeal to the courts to step forward and help save democracy," Patole implored.

To a query whether he would be targeted next by the ED, the Congress chief said he "would welcome" the probe agency, but it is time for all to unitedly oppose and fight the pressure mechanism of the BJP.