Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate, the national agency specialising in financial investigation, is currently in the news after several cases of money laundering and related probe have been followed by arrests or summons issued to Maharashtra leaders and ministers. From the “hafta-gate” to the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam, several leaders and ministers from Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government are under ED lens. Be it Ajit Pawar, Anil Deshmukh, Eknath Khadse from NCP or Pratap Sarnaik from Shiv Sena or senior Congress leader Nitin Raut, files of all the cases are opening one after the other, with these MVA leaders being called, and charged by ED for their alleged misdeeds.
Some see this as pressure tactics and a political ploy in the backdrop of ripples in the MVA government and meetings between BJP and Sena leaders. The ED maintains that this has nothing to do with politics and “we have proof and evidence and accordingly, we are doing the probe”.
NCP: Its leaders were either summoned or charged by the agency in the past two weeks. Ex-Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh was summoned thrice in a money laundering case after searches at his place and the arrest of two of his aides. NCP leader Ekanth Khadse too was questioned for nine hours in a Pune land deal case, following the arrest of his son-in-law, Girish Chaudhri, for alleged money laundering. In the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam, the ED attached crores of assets linked to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. The ED has increased the heat on NCP leader Pawar around the beginning of July. The ED attached a sugar mill worth Rs 65 crore in Satara, which is linked to Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra Pawar, as part of the probe into a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged Rs 25,000 crore MSCB scam. These assets include land, building, machinery and other facilities held by a Guru Commodity Services Private Limited, that had leased it to a sugar mill—Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana (SSK)—in Maharashtra’s Satara district. Reacting to the development, Pawar said that it was nothing but a move to malign his party and its leaders.
Remaining unfazed, he said that he was seeking legal advice on the issue, “The agency (ED) has the right to conduct an inquiry. Earlier, the state-CID and Anti-Corruption Bureau did the investigation, but nothing came out. The Economic Offences Wing probe is also underway. Investigation is being done from all sides, but nothing came out; a judicial probe had also been conducted.” Meanwhile, Anil Deshmukh has ducked ED date thrice, the third time is barely a week that Deshmukh—who was raided by the ED on 25 June, and at least two of his close aides were arrested—spurned the ED summons to join the probe. Deshmukh said that he has moved a petition in the Supreme Court which would be listed in a few days and asked the ED to wait until its outcome in the apex court.
Anil Deshmukh also alleged that the probe against him was not transparent and was politically motivated. As per ED, which is tracking the hafta trail, Deshmukh laundered money collected from Mumbai bars through his trust via shell companies. Sources in ED tell The Sunday Guardian, “We are going to oppose the plea of the ex-Maharashtra Home Minister, as there’s a crystal clear case of money laundering against him. He seems to be running away by skipping three summons.”
Khadse, former state revenue minister and NCP leader who did appear in front of the ED, was questioned for nine hours on Thursday, a day after the ED arrested his son-in-law Girish Chaudhari in a money laundering case. The agency has alleged that Chaudhari and Khadse bought land from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at Bhosari in Pune for Rs 3.75 crore when its actual value was almost Rs 40 crore. According to ED, the land was purchased in Chaudhari’s name and the money for the deal was allegedly routed through five shell companies. Meanwhile, Khadse said, “The ED swung into action only after I changed party from BJP to NCP and this is a political conspiracy against me.” The ED has also probed Supriya Sule, NCP MP and daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who said, “I have never seen such blatant misuse of Central agencies.”
SHIV SENA: Recently Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena leader, said that the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should not be involved in overthrowing governments, and that those who played a key role in the formation of the MVA government were being targeted. Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik, who is being investigated by the ED in connection with an alleged Rs 175-crore money laundering case, recently wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to patch up with the BJP to save Sena leaders from being harassed by Central agencies.
CONGRESS: Senior Congress leader Nitin Raut, who handles the energy portfolio in the state, too is on ED radar. Tarun Parmar, a lawyer from Nagpur, has filed a complaint with the ED against him. Parmar in his complaint has alleged that Raut had amassed unaccountable assets. In his statement to the media while recording his statement in front of the ED, Parmar said, “Nitin Raut is involved in corruption and money laundering. I went to the ED office in Mumbai on 28 June, gave my statement and submitted all the facts and proof. ED is likely to summon the minister for interrogation.”