Patil has alleged that during a visit to Pune in 2018, he was forcibly taken to a flat in Sadashiv Peth area and threatened that he will be booked in false cases.

The FIR filed in Jalgaon district against BJP leader and former state minister Girish Mahajan and 28 others, alleging extortion and criminal intimidation of the office-bearer of a cooperative educational institute in Jalgaon, has been transferred to Kothrud police station in Pune for probe.

In the third week of December last year, a First Information Report was registered against Mahajan (60) and 28 others, at Nimbhora police station in Jalgaon. The FIR was based on a complaint filed by Vijay Patil, who is a lawyer and one of the directors of the Jilha Maratha Vidyaprasarak Sahakari Samaaj, a cooperative educational institute in Jalgaon. The alleged offence was committed over a period of time between January 2018 till the time of registration of the case.

According to the FIR, as part of the criminal conspiracy involving all the accused, Patil was threatened and asked to resign from his position. Patil has alleged that during a visit to Pune in 2018, he was forcibly taken to a flat in Sadashiv Peth area and threatened that he will be booked in false offences. Patil also made allegations of forgery by some of the suspects in order to gain control of the Jalgaon-based institute.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kothrud Division) Machhindra Chavan confirmed that the case has been transferred to Kothrud police station and he has taken over the probe. “We have the probe into the allegations made by the complainant and have started gathering facts of the case. I can’t divulge any other details of the probe.”

While Mahajan did not respond to calls seeking his comment, he has in the past denied these allegations and has termed them “political vendetta”. He has also filed an application in the court for squashing of the FIR. The IPC sections under which the 29 persons have been booked include 331 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort confession), 384 (extortion), 465 (forgery) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

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