Mumbai top cop Maria's defense on Lalit meet satisfies Maharashtra CM

His explanations have reportedly satisfied  Maharashtra government Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis during a meeting on Monday night.

 Modi is wanted in India to answer charges of corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering during his term as chief of the Indian Premier League.

Chief Minister Fadnavis was reportedly considering transferring  Maria before he received the in-person explanation and a detailed report in writing.

 

NDTV has quoted sources as saying that penalising  Maria would have been tricky for the Chief Minister since his party, the BJP, has extended support to  Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje,two senior leaders, who also met Modi in London and provided support for various appeals he made to UK officials about immigration and urgent travel documents at a time when his passport had been revoked by India.

  Maria has said that his 20-minute meeting with  Modi was organised at the insistence of the entrepreneur's lawyer to discuss an alleged threat to Modi's life. The police officer has described as "malicious" reports that the session was orchestrated by Vinod Goenka, a businessman on trial in the telecom scam.

  Maria on Monday did not respond directly to questions from NDTV about whether the police force agreed with  Modi's assessment that his life is at risk from the underworld.

 Politician and former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar has told NDTV that there "is some substance" to these apprehensions which Mr Modi shared with him, also at a meeting in London four weeks ago.