WEB DESK
Following intense pressure and protest from the opposition, over his alleged connection with the death of a 23-year-old woman from the nomadic Banjara community in Pune, Maharashtra Forest Minister and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rathod today resigned from the Maharashtra cabinet.
Opposition accused him of having connection with the death of a 23-year-old lady from the nomadic Banjara community in Pune.
Mr. Rathod, who has been under fire from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for nearly three weeks following the incident, tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday.
While Mr. Thackeray said that he had accepted the Minister’s resignation, he criticized the opposition for attempting to lynch Mr. Rathod before the completion of an impartial probe.
Stating that the affair was ‘a ploy’ to defame him, Mr. Rathod said that he would assist in the police investigation even as former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP’s Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Assembly, hit out at the Maharashtra police and Mr. Thackeray’s handling of the affair.