Thaindian News

Mumbai, June 2 (IANS) The Maharashtra assembly witnessed pandemonium for the second consecutive day Tuesday with the opposition parties walking out over the alleged leak of the Ram Pradhan Committee probe report on the Mumbai terror attacks.
Rejecting the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party legislators’ contentions, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan denied that the Pradhan Committee report had been leaked.

“The report was submitted to me by Pradhan. After that, he lauded the role of the police and security forces for their supreme sacrifices. This does not mean that the report has been leaked,” he countered.

Chavan reiterated his earlier assurance that the report and the Action Taken Report (ATR) would be simultaneously tabled before the legislature in the ongoing monsoon session. The report has been sent to a committee headed by Chief Secretary Johny Joseph to prepare the ATR, he said.

Senior opposition leaders like BJP’s Nitin Gadkar and Sena’s Diwakar Raote had raised the issue of the alleged leak. Raote said that since the assembly was due to meet soon, it should have been tabled in the house first. “We learnt of the report only through the media,” he said.

They came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for what they termed as “a clean chit” to the police by the Pradhan Committee.

When the Opposition members pointed out that former RAW official V. Balachandran, who was on the Pradhan Committee, had expressed dissatisfaction over the police’s role in a blog, Chavan said he would inquire into the matter.

Not satisfied by the chief minister’s reply, the opposition members staged a walk-out. Earlier in the day, the house was adjourned four times over the same issue.

On Monday, the opening day of the monsoon session of the state legislature, the opposition had raised the issue vociferously.