Damania accuses ex-minister Dhananjay Munde of causing file on corruption to disappear

Mumbai, Aug 21 (PTI) Activist Anjali Damania on Thursday alleged that NCP leader Dhananjay Munde caused a file containing a report on complaints of corruption in the Maharashtra agriculture department to disappear during his tenure as a minister.

She has received a written communication from the department that it did not have the file and a letter had been sent to the former minister requesting to return it, Damania said.

Munde was agriculture minister in the previous Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government. He held a different portfolio in the current government but resigned earlier this year when his close aide was arrested in a murder case. In a post on X, Damania claimed that IAS officer V Radha, then agriculture secretary, had sent a file containing a report on complaints of corruption and irregularities in the department to Munde.

"This file was made to disappear by Dhananjay Munde. During the Lokayukta hearing today, after I presented this matter before the Lokayukta, a Deputy Secretary named Pratibha Patil confirmed that there was an outward number indicating that the file was sent to the minister, but the file was not returned after his resignation," the anti-corruption activist said.

The Lokayukta ordered Munde to submit a written response, she said.

The NCP leader's reaction on the allegations was not available immediately. PTI MR KRK