According to Rajani Patil, her husband had been murdered due to political rivalry and she alleged that GN Patil and former MP Ulhas Patil were behind the murder. Their names find no mention in the FIR though.

Rajani Patil said she has refused to immerse her husband’s ashes until the two are brought to book for her husband’s death and the urn containing the ashes is tied to a tree outside her residence at Pimprala in Jalgaon.

“My husband had defeated G.N Patil in the election to the office of the DCC president in April 2005. GN Patil and Ulhas Patil were unwilling to accept defeat. Their anger and hostility increased when my husband initiated an inner-party investigation into financial irregularities” allegedly committed by G N Patil,” she said in a memorandum.

It was on March 5, 2007, that Rajani Patil wrote to Sonia Gandhi again mentioning GN Patil and Ulhas Patil in connection with her husband’s murder. But even in that letter she made no reference to any political pressure being exerted by Pratibha Patil on the investigating agencies.

Investigating the murder case, the police arrested two people Raju Mali and Raju Sonawane for the murders and said that the crime had taken place as VG Patil had allegedly borrowed Rs 4.5 lakh from some people and failed to repay it. Two more suspects were arrested but let off later.

The case was transferred to the CID by the state government on September 30, 2005. Rajani filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad Bench, and the investigations of the case were transferred to the CBI vide the court’s order dated February 23, 2007.

... contd.