CBI to probe Gopinath Munde's death

The CBI will probe the death of senior BJP leader and Union minister Gopinath Munde in a car crash last week, Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadse said today following an assurance from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

"This morning, Rajnath Singh telephoned me and discussed last week's accident which claimed Munde's life and said CBI would conduct a probe into it. The Union Minister told me that official orders in this connection would be issued in three to four days," Khadse said in a statement. He said Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and state BJP chief Devendra Phadanvis had met Singh in Delhi yesterday and sought a CBI probe to clear doubts surrounding the circumstances of Munde's death.

Doubts were raised about why no security personnel accompanied him when he left for the airport on way to Maharashtra, how he died in a minor accident and whether it was the result of a sabotage, he said. "There has been a demand for probe into the death from different sections of the society and there is an air of suspicion," Khadse said.

Meanwhile, Munde's daughter and MLA Pankaja Munde Palve, in a statement urged the deceased leader's supporters not to fall prey to those trying to make political capital out of the tragedy. "I have spoken to Phadanvis and Khadse regarding the CBI inquiry and I trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am confident he will show direction in the face of various theories doing the rounds regarding my father's death. I urge my father's followers not to lose control," she said.

64-year-old Munde died of multiple internal injuries suffered in a road accident in Central Delhi last week.