Report links India to anti-Muizzu plot, Maldives ex-prez denies it | India News

NEW DELHI: Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has dismissed a Washington Post report alleging that the opposition asked for $6 million from India to assist in a plot to remove Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu.
The former Maldives president claimed he was not aware of any “serious plot” against President Muizzu, adding that India would never support such a move.
“I read today’s Washington Post article with interest. I was not aware of any plot against the President, although some people always live in conspiracy. India would never support such a measure, as it always supports Maldivian democracy. India would never has dictated conditions for us either,” Mohamed Nasheed wrote in X.
The Washington Post report claimed that Maldivian opposition politicians proposed bribing 40 parliamentarians, including those from Muizzu’s own party, to vote in favor of his dismissal.
There was no official reaction from MEA to the report that surfaced on Monday. Government sources, however, strongly denied that India could have played a role in the alleged efforts to overthrow Muizzu. India’s relations with its strategically located neighbor in the Indian Ocean have improved since Prime Minister Modi invited Muizzu to his swearing-in in June and the president’s subsequent state visit to India. During his visit to India, Muizzu said in an interview to TOI that he will never do anything that harms India’s security interests.
“In an internal document titled ‘Democratic Renewal Initiative’ and obtained by The Washington Post, Maldivian opposition politicians proposed bribing 40 parliamentarians, including those from Muizzu’s own party, to vote in favor of his dismissal. The document proposed paying 10 senior army and police officers and three powerful criminal gangs to ensure Muizzu’s removal. To pay the various parties, the conspirators requested 87 million. rufiyaa, or $6 million, and according to two Maldivian officials, would be requested from India,” the Washington Post report alleges.
The report also claimed that a senior official at India’s intelligence agency, R&AW, “explored” a plot to overthrow President Muizzu months after he took office.
“In January, after Muizzu took office, a Muizzu family adviser said, an R&AW official at the Indian embassy in Washington explored a plan to overthrow the president with two Indian intermediaries who had political and business contacts in Maldives One intermediary was Shirish Thorat, a former police officer who worked as a private military contractor and advised Mohamed Nasheed when he was president of the Maldives on how to curb Islamist radicalization. The other was Savio. Rodrigues, a Goa-based editor who previously served as spokesperson for the BJP government,” the report alleged.