File image of Uddhav Thackeray. Image courtesy: Twitter/@OfficeOfUT

Mumbai: Intentions of the Maharashtra government will be questioned even more if the ruling Shiv Sena continues to defend suspended police official Sachin Waze, BJP leader Pravin Darekar said on Tuesday.

The National Investigation Agency, which has arrested assistant police inspector Waze in connection with the SUV with explosives found outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’shouse, is a competent agency, he told reporters in Mumbai.

“The more the Sena continues to defend Sachin Waze, the more suspicion there will be around the intentions of the government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress,” he said. “I think there is a deeper conspiracy behind the entire Waze affair,” added Darekar, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council.

“The way so many meetings are being held at the state government’s level, it indicates some senior government officials and politicians are involved,” he alleged. On the state government’s claim that the BJP was defaming Maharashtra, Darekar said the government was defaming itself.

“Their own image is getting maligned and not that of Maharashtra,” he said. On the Sena’s charge that the take-over of the case by the NIA was an insult of state police, Darekar said the central agency is competent and its motives should not be questioned.

The BJP will continue to follow up the case, he added. Waze, arrested by the NIA on Saturday, was suspended on Monday. He is also facing allegations with regard to the mysterious death of businessman Mansukh Hiran, who had claimed that the vehicle found outside Ambani’s house had been stolen from his possession.

The Sena mouthpiece Saamana alleged on Monday that since Waze arrested journalist Arnab Goswami in the Anvay Naik suicide case, he was on the “hit-list of the BJP and the Centre”.