Maharahstra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday took serious note of the death threat issued to Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar earlier today by unknown persons.

Shinde said he has spoken to senior police officers and given instructions for investigation into the tweets. Shinde said Sharad Pawar’s safety will be fully taken care of by the state.

A Twitter user posted saying the NCP chief will meet the same fate as rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013.

In his reaction, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said threatening any leader or overstepping the bounds of civility while expressing oneself on social media will not be tolerated.

Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, the Baramati Member of Parliament, met Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and demanded immediate action. She submitted printouts of the death threat to the police. Earlier on Friday, Sule told media that Sharad Pawar has received threats through a website. Claiming such actions as “low-level politics”, Sule urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Maharashtra Home Minister to look into the matter.

Sharad Pawar is a critical leader for the Opposition formation in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The veteran leader has been a bridge for several regional parties in their interaction with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Pawar had himself outed the challenge within the NCP posed by several people, including nephew Ajit Pawar, by threatening to resign as NCP president. Grassroots leaders of the NCP prevailed upon Pawar not to resign from the party leadership, thereby stalemating potential plans for the NCP to bail out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi and ally itself with the BJP.

Pawar will be attending the Opposition jamboree in Patna, Bihar on June 23 where senior opposition leaders from a range of parties will be attending. The meet which was initially slated for June 12 had to be called off since Rahul Gandhi was away on his US trip.

Congress Leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Friday, claimed that her husband and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu had gifted the Punjab Chief Minister’s position to Bhagwant Mann claiming AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had offered him the position but Sidhu declined it since he did not wanted to betray his party, Congress.

She claimed Kejriwal had approached Navjot Singh Sidhu through various channels for CM’s position. She further added, her husband’s only concern was the welfare of Punjab and he has sacrificed everything for it. She added, Sidhu believes two strong-headed men cannot work together hence, he turned down Kejriwal’s offer.

Punjab went to polls in February 2022, that marked AAP’s power debut in the state with Bhagwant Mann becoming the CM.

She said, Mann would walk on the path of truth then Sidhu would support him and if Mann deviates from the truth then his husband is encircle him from all the sides. Mann had slammed the opposition for their gathering in Jalandhar to support the Editor of Punjab Daily, who is under a vigilance scanner.

Responding to which Kaur said, Mann is running Punjab as pawns being remote controlled from Delhi(referring to AAP high command) and should stop moral lecturing the people.

On June 1, several leaders had gathered at the office of the Punjabi Newspaper Ajit in Jalandhar in support of its Editor-In-Chief Barjinder Singh Hamdard who is under the scanner of Vigilance Bureau over alleged misuse of funds in the construction of Rs 315 crore Jang-e-Azadi memorial in Jalandhar.        

Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who has been battling with Cancer lately, is a former MLA in the Punjab Legislative Assembly and a former Minister. While, Navjot Singh Sidhu, now a Congress leader is a former Indian cricketer. The husband Sidhu made his political debut in 2004 wining the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in a BJP ticket. He also served as a Minister in then Amarinder Singh government in Punjab.

Manoj Sane, the suspect in the grisly murder reported in Mira Road, Mumbai, has told police that he never had physical contact with the victim, 32-year-old Saraswati Vaidya, his live-in girlfriend, since he has tested positive for HIV.

Reports said Sane said she was like a daughter to him and he taught her maths. Sane is charged with killing Vaidya, chopping her body, and disposing of the pieces after boiling them in a pressure cooker. Despite knowing each other since 2014, they have been living together in the Mira Road flat for the past three years.

Sane told the authorities that he first met Saraswati 16 years ago when he was working at a ration store. He said he got his HIV+ diagnosis in 2008 and has been taking treatment since then. He claimed to have been in an accident and to have undergone extensive medical treatment. Sane told the authorities that he believed he was infected with HIV while receiving treatment for that accident.

According to Sane, Vaidya was very possessive of him but he used to treat her like his daughter. He also claimed that he’d teach Saraswati maths on a board which the police found on one of the walls of the flat where the couple resided, as the 32-year-old was preparing to appear for Class 10 SSC examinations.

Saraswati Vaidya, the victim, was identified as an orphan by the police on Thursday. However, three of her sisters came to the Naya Nagar Police station on Friday to record their statements.

Although Saraswati Vaidya and Manoj Sane were identified by their neighbours as a live-in couple, Vaidya had told them that she was staying with her uncle. Sane also told the same to them. According to a staffer at the orphanage where she was raised, she told them also that she is staying with her uncle.