Family members of Nitin Pawar, the NCP MLA from Nashik, have lodged a police complaint alleging that the MLA has gone missing.
Pawar is one of the three MLAs who failed to turn up for the party meeting called by NCP President Sharad Pawar yesterday.
It is believed that Nitin Pawar may be under the custody or protection of the Bharatiya Janata Party or Ajit Pawar, the rebel NCP leader who broke ranks to support the BJP to help it form a government in Maharashtra yesterday.
“Nitin Pawar’s family members have filed an FIR [First Information Report] saying that he is missing,” said Jayant Patil, state president for NCP for Maharashtra.
Patil also said that the family members of Narhari Zirwal, the NCP MLA from Dindori constituency, also approached the police with a missing person complaint.
“His family members also went to the police to file a complaint, but the police refused to accept the complaint,” Patil said.
Missing person complaints can be filed by the family of a person any time after the person becomes untraceable. However, the police issue a Missing Person Report only 24 hours after the person goes missing.
Once the Missing Person Report is issued, a copy of the report — including the person’s photograph — is uploaded to the central database of the police, from where it is further distributed to all lookout points.
The Nationalist Congress Party is trying to fend off encroachment attempts by the BJP, which formed the government for Maharashtra in the wee hours of yesterday, allegedly after claiming the support of 54 MLAs of the NCP.
Sharad Pawar called a meeting in the evening yesterday to demonstrate that his MLAs were with him, and not the BJP.
However, four MLAs are reported to have not turned up for the meeting. These MLAs have remained untraceable and out-of-reach for both NCP and the respective families of the MLAs.
Patil continues to maintain that all 54 MLAs will eventually come back into the NCP, including Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Sharad Pawar.
“When he [Ajit Pawar] comes back, obviously he will be with us,” he said.
Ajit Pawar has a history of rebelling against his uncle, only to return to the fold later.