While the controversy surrounding Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje and their links with Modi refuses to die down, Rakesh Maria has too landed himself in the eye of the storm.

While the controversy surrounding Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje and their links with former IPL chairman Lalit Modi refuses to die down, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has landed himself in the eye of the storm as well. On Saturday, news channels aired a photo, purportedly featuring the Mumbai Police Commissioner with Modi in London. After Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis demanded an explanation, Maria issued a statement saying that he had met the former IPL Commissioner at the insistence of the latter's lawyer in London last year.

Congress-NCP combine was governing Maharashtra at the time Maria had met Modi met in London. According to The Telegraph, the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that he had no idea that Maria met the tainted former IPL chairman in 2014. Maria, in his statement, had said that he had informed the then home minister R R Patil about his meeting with Modi. NCP leader Patil passed away in February 2015.

"He (Maria) did not speak to me about the meeting with Lalit Modi in London after returning from London. Nor had he talked to me about it before going. And neither had my home minister mentioned anything about this meeting to me ever.... Such visits are cleared at the level of the home minister," Chavan told The Telegraph.

"On my return to India, I immediately brought the above details to the notice of the Home Minister, M.S. and also maintained the requisite Confidential record of the same," Maria's statement, which was issued during the weekend, said. On reports, claiming the 15-minute meeting was arranged by businessman Vinod Goenka, who is also one of the accused in the telecom scam, Maria said the reports were "false and malicious."

"We have asked Rakesh Maria to give information officially to the government on what he has said in the media. Based on his information, we will decide further course of action," Fadnavis said after Chavan's statement.

Asked if a time frame has been laid down for Maria to give the information, the CM said he has been given a day. On whether Maria will be asked to step down temporarily until the inquiry against him is conducted, Fadnavis said, "First let the information come to us," IBNLive quoted the CM as saying.

Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil had, however, said that repeated requests from Lalit Modi cannot be an "excuse" to meet him and an inquiry will be conducted. "As far as what we know till now, on his repeated insistence, Maria met Lalit Modi in London. Now we will have to go through records and examine that what compelled Maria to meet him despite knowing there is so much criticism surrounding him. Insistence cannot be an excuse," Patil told IBNLive.

Meanwhile, Maria met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latter's official residence 'Varsha' late on Monday. "It was not one-on-one meeting as such. Maria has come to attend a meeting on police housing and met Fadnavis during the course of the meeting," a senior official told PTI.

The official did not divulge what transpired at the meeting.

Rakesh Maria Statement on Lalit Modi Meeting