Maharashtra government on Friday sent a senior government officer on compulsory leave for helping DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan to travel to their farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar despite the COVID-19 lockdown, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said.
“As per discussion with CM (Uddhav Thackeray), Amitabh Gupta, Principal Secretary (special), has been sent on compulsory leave with immediate effect, till the pending of enquiry, which will be initiated against him,” Deshmukh tweeted.
The permission to travel was issued by Amitabh Gupta. He had issued a letter exempting the Wadhawans from the lockdown norms citing a family emergency.
According to the sources, the Wadhawan family along with others had travelled from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar in their cars.
They were detained at their farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar on Thursday for violating prohibitory orders amid lockdown.
An official said, there were total 23 people including members of the Wadhawan family at their farmhouse.
An FIR has been registered against all of them, police said.
Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis earlier in a tweet said, “No lockdowns for mighty & rich in Maharashtra? One can spend holidays in Mahabaleshwar with official permission from police. It is not possible that a senior IPS officer would do such gross mistake knowing the consequences on his own.”
