CBI files case against Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan, 28 others in extortion case

The women have been taken into custody for interrogation, the police said, adding, “They are behaving in a mentally unstable way. So we are monitoring them."

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Girish Mahajan and 28 others for allegedly causing grievous hurt to extract a confession, kidnapping, extortion, theft, criminal trespass and other charges under the India Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The case pertains to an FIR filed by one Vijay Patil registered in December 2020.

Patil is one of the directors of the Jilha Maratha Vidyaprasarak Sahakari Samaaj, a cooperative educational organisation running various colleges and institutes in Jalgaon district. The total assets belonging to the organisation are worth around Rs 1,000 crores. According to Patil's statement, the offence happened between January 2018 and December 2020.

The FIR states that as part of a criminal conspiracy, allegedly hatched and executed by the accused named in the FIR, Patil was asked to resign from his post as director of the organisation.

He said in his statement that in 2018, while he was visiting Pune, he was forcibly taken to a flat in Pune's Sadashiv Peth area and beaten up and threatened that he would be charged in false cases if he did not follow the orders of the accused.

Patil also said that that the accused were involved in forgery to gain control of the Jalgaon-based educational organisation.

Following this, he was threatened repeatedly and in December 2020, the complainant filed an FIR against Mahajan and 28 others in Jalgaon. This FIR was then transferred to Pune's Kothrud police station in January 2021.