MUMBAI, Sept. 6 -- The altercation between deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and a woman probationary IPS officer Anjana Krisha, after she acted against a group of men stealing road construction material in a Solapur village, is blowing up into an embarrassment for both the senior leader and his party, the NCP. Pawar is now backpedalling, claiming he did not mean to pull up Krishna or interfere in law enforcement. He simply didn't want a law-and-order situation in the village, he claims. Posting on social media on Friday, Pawar said, "Some videos of my interaction with police officials in Solapur are being circulated on social media. I wish to state clearly that my intention was not to interfere in the enforcement of law, but only to ensure that the situation there remained calm and did not deteriorate further. I hold the highest respect for our police force, as well as for women officers, who discharge their duty with courage and integrity. For me, rule of law is of utmost importance." He added, "I am committed to transparent administration and to take strict legal action against every unlawful activity, including illegal sand, soil and stone excavation." While Pawar issued the clarification, his party men have amped up the attack on Krishna. NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari, a confidant of the deputy chief minister, has written to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), to enquire into the educational qualifications and caste documents submitted by her. To justify this, Mitkari told the media on Friday, "She is working in Maharashtra and doesn't even know the deputy chief minister of that state." Pawar had pulled up Krishna over a phone call made on the mobile of a local NCP leader, Babaraje Jagtap, who had sought Pawar's intervention and was with Krishna and local revenue officials at the site where the road construction material was being excavated and stolen. When Krishna requested Pawar to call on her own phone, to be sure it was him, the senior politician was furious and threatened to take administrative action against her. It was this request by Krishna that Mitkari was referencing, saying she should have been able to recognise the voice of the deputy chief minister. Meanwhile, Solapur police have booked 19 villagers, most of them NCP office-bearers and workers, for the illegal extraction and obstructing public servants performing their duty. The incident, which took place on September 1, was filmed and went viral on social media. Local news channels have been playing it on a loop, and opposition parties have turned up the heat. Politicians such as Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP-SP leaders Atul Londhe, Sanjay Raut and Jitendra Awhad, are demanding an apology from Pawar. Opposition parties and social activists say the issue runs deeper than Pawar's high-handedness. The real problem, they argue, is a nexus between politicians and the local sand mafia. Worse, they say, it represents similar goings-on at the village and district level across the state, and the political patronage across party lines enjoyed by the people involved in these activities. Vijay Kumbhar, AAP leader and RTI activist, said, "Sand mining contracts are given to politically connected contractors, and in many cases to political workers. The lobbies are so strong that clashes with senior revenue officials who oppose them sometimes result in fatalities," he said. Kumbhar rubbished Pawar's justification for the line he took with Krishna, saying, "Bullying local officers is not new to senior politicians. These goings-on are not new; it's come to light only because the video clip went viral." Revenue officials say the sand mafia is politically so well connected that they are not afraid of police or revenue officials. "Although contracts for extraction of minerals are given by the government against a specified royalty, they engage in all kinds of violations. Sand is dredged in areas where it's banned and even the type of minerals they mine are often prohibited." The official said that, in some cases, precious stones are extracted during sand mining. Also, sand extraction and transportation are done beyond the permitted hours. These lobbies are politically very well connected. They have managed to sabotage the government's efforts to introduce transparency by tweaking the existing sand-mining policy. In Kurdu village, in Solapur, where the viral incident took place, the villagers and men Krishna sought to restrain went berserk after her phone call with Pawar. A skirmish ensured with local revenue officials and the police booked many of them, including Babaraje Jagtap, who had made the initial phone call to Pawar. Sachin Jagtap, a resident of Tembhurni, the village next to Kurdu, and witness to the incident, said the villagers went berserk because permission had apparently been given to extract the murrum for road construction. "Still, the tehsildar, block development officer and sub-divisional officer visited the spot and questioned the villagers. When things got heated, a local police officer informed Anjana Krishna, who personally visited the spot." Some villagers claim the clash took place because of a tussle between the two NCP factions over sand mining contracts - one led by Ajit Pawar and the NCP (SP) led by his uncle Sharad Pawar. According to a local NCP leader from Kurduwadi village, "A fortnight ago, the local administration had taken action against relatives of a local NCP-SP leader. The recent incident was a retaliatory move."...