Nagpur,   In a significant statement, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that it was a "mistake" to take the resignation of former State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who was nabbed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last November in an alleged money-laundering case.

"We have seen the kind of evidence available against Deshmukha His resignation was taken in haste (in April 2021), and it was a mistake. He was targeted and the central probe agencies like CBI and ED were let loose against him," Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.

He reiterated that "there's absolutely no question" of taking the resignation or sacking Minister Nawab Malik, also arrested by the ED in February in an alleged money-laundering case arising out of a tainted land deal with links to the absconder mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

"We have always said that the maximum activities of the central agencies are in Maharashtra and West Bengal. The ED has conducted over 23,000 raids in the past seven years. They are trying to create 'fear' and topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government herea We shall not bow down before Delhi's diktats," Raut asserted.

The Sena leader pointed out that he had submitted evidence of around 100 cases to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "but why is the ED not taking action" in those matters.

"Even I have been threatened with ED actiona I am not scared and shall not be pressured by them. Several of our leaders are being harassed similarly by the Central agencies, but we shall continue our fight against them," Raut said.

Besides Deshmukh and Malik, at least half a dozen other leaders from Sena-NCP are under the scanner of various central agencies with probes progressing against them.

He was talking to mediapersons at the launch of a three-day mass-contact programme of the Shiv Sena launched in the state's eastern Vidarbha region as part of the party's outreach programme.