Now, row over Tiger Memon kin’s meeting BJP, Sena leaders

Mumbai, Sep 10 (IANS) A fresh row erupted between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena over each other’s photos and alleged ‘links’ with a kin of the absconding terror accused Mushtaq Abdul Razzak alias Tiger Memon, here on Saturday.

The trigger was an undated video clip showing one Rauf Memon, the cousin of the dreaded Tiger Memon and his executed brother Yakub – with former Shiv Sena’s Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, which went viral on Saturday.

Grabbing the opportunity, the BJP slammed Shiv Sena President ‘Janaab’ Uddhav Thackeray to link with the fracas over the renovation of the grave of the hanged terror convict Yakub Memon.

Accusing the BJP of trying to defame it, the Shiv Sena hit back by circulating a purported undated photo of the same Rauf Memon with BJP’s current Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and present Minister Chandrakant Patil.

Jumping into the cauldron, Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant also tweeted a couple of pix showing Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari felicitating Rauf Memon with a query: “Is it the same Rauf Memon?”

The developments came two days after a major brawl between the two erstwhile allies on the alleged ‘make-over’ of the grave of terror convict, Yakub Memon (hanged in 2015), located in the Bada Qabrastan in south Mumbai.

“I had not gone to the grave as portrayed, but had visited a mosque… Anybody could have shot that video… The BJP is trying to defame us at every step and linking everything to Uddhav Thackeray Saheb,” a livid Pednekar said.

She and Thackeray’s Spokesperson Harshal Pradhan also flashed a Rauf Memon’s photo with the Fadnavis-Patil duo and Pednekar dared the BJP – which keeps attacking others on flimsy issues – to explain it, even as other BJP leaders like Pravin Darekar and Atul Bhatkhalkar attacked her.

Though Fadnavis had promptly ordered a probe into the Yakub Memon grave refurbishing controversy on Thursday, other BJP leaders are now demanding investigations into the mafia links of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s leaders. – IANS