Ramdas Kadam says Jarange audio clip speakers are all BJP people, seeks probe

Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil today made viral a 32-minute audio clip, causing a major stir. In the clip, a woman is heard saying that Rs 500 crore was given to Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to manage Manoj Jarange. The clip contains a conversation among three or four people. As soon as it went viral, it became the talk everywhere.

The Shinde camp has responded. Former minister and camp leader Ramdas Kadam said all the people speaking in the clip belong to the BJP, and asked what connection they had with the Shinde camp. The Shinde camp thus distanced itself from the matter and put the blame squarely on the BJP. All eyes are now on what response comes from the BJP.

Kadam made the remarks at a press conference. He said Eknath Shinde's contribution to securing justice for the Maratha community was large. Reminding Jarange of one thing, he said that if Jarange wished, he could ask Vinod Patil at whose bungalow the legal study was done on securing justice for the Maratha community and going to the Supreme Court. According to Kadam, Vinod Patil would answer this.

Kadam said, "We are behind the scenes." The clip is two to two-and-a-half years old, he said, so how has it come out now? Why did this clip not surface when the Assembly election and the Lok Sabha election were held? He acknowledged that three or four people are speaking in it and that they are from the BJP, with no two opinions about it. He said he had himself heard the clip and that these people are speaking on a conference call. It has a connection to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Thane, and to Mumbai as well.

Kadam said that tomorrow anyone could say on a conference call that a thousand crore was given to one person and two thousand crore to another. Such a claim, he said, has no basis. He asked why, then, Jarange had waited two to two-and-a-half years. He also said that if some people were defaming the leader of one's own community by levelling such allegations, Jarange should have stood with Eknath Shinde.

Kadam said that even if the clip is three years old, it should be investigated. Who the woman is must come out. Where the money was paid must also come out, as must where that woman got Rs 500 crore. If the clip was made to defame Eknath Shinde, he said, the community should unite and foil this conspiracy.

He said he would submit a memorandum on this to the Chief Minister and would meet Shinde and discuss it today itself. He will also submit a memorandum to Amit Shah. Kadam stressed that the clip must be probed in depth.

He also said everything would come out after the investigation. This is a clip about two-and-a-half years old, in which two or three people are speaking, and none of them is a senior BJP leader. He said the investigation would reveal whether the clip was made only to defame Shinde.