Sule said NCP(SP) MLA Rohit Pawar had told her that Shaikh has been framed in case due to a sports rivalry (Express File Photo)BARAMATI MP Supriya Sule on Monday said she has spoken with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and sought his intervention for the release of arrested wrestler Sikander Shaikh who hails from Solapur district of Maharashtra.“Today, I spoke to the Punjab Chief Minister. We held a conference call with the Director General of Punjab. The CM told me that Mohali SSP will speak to the family of Shaikh in this regard,” Sule told this paper.Shaikh was arrested last week in Mohali along with two gangsters for allegedly being part of an inter-state arms smuggling network.Sule said “I have urged the Chief Minister that Punjab police should go ahead with the probe but for now Sikander should be released now,” she said.Sule said NCP(SP) MLA Rohit Pawar had told her that Shaikh has been framed in case due to a sports rivalry. “In the morning when I spoke to the Chief Minister, he told me that he will update me about the matter by afternoon. And then later he spoke to me. During the conversation, I urged him to intervene in the matter and ensure the release of the wrestler till the probe is carried out,” she said.When contacted by The Indian Express, Mohali SSP Harmandeep Singh Hans said, “We are looking into the case. It has been only two days since the arrest has taken place. We are investigating the matter. If we don’t find anything against him in the case, we will definitely help him.”The Punjab police said they will look into all the issues raised by his family and others. “We will definitely consider the points raised by Shaikh’s family and others while investigating the matter.”Story continues below this adSule, who belongs to the NCP led by Sharad Pawar, has thrown her weight behind the wrestler even though the NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has taken yup the cudgels on behalf of Sikander Shaikh. The NCP has also urged the Chief Minister of Punjab to release the wrestler, alleging that there was a conspiracy by local wrestlers in Punjab to stop him from becoming the Hind Kesari (national wrestling champion). “We have urged the Punjab Chief Minister to use his good offices to secure the release of the wrestler. We, the people of Solapur, who know the wrestler from childhood as well as his family are fully confident that Sikander would do no wrong. I myself lived in the same area for years like Sikander did,” said NCP Solapur District president Umesh Patil.Highlighting how the conspiracy took place to frame him, Patil said Shaikh was given a parcel by some wrestlers to hand it over to some of their friends. “Shaikh did not open the parcel. He had no clue what was inside the parcel. He carried it with him. Police intercepted him, checked the parcel and arrested him. This is a clear cut conspiracy case,” said Patil.The wrestler’s family said they can’t believe that their son will ever indulge in such an act. “Sikander will never do anything wrong. He has earned his fame through the dint of hard-work. It is definitely a conspiracy to frame him and stop him from becoming the nation’s top wrestler. We are confident that the Punjab police will do proper justice in this matter,” said Rashid Shaikh, the wrestler’s father who himself has won laurels in wrestling bouts of Solapur district.Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd