Of the nine NCP leaders who have joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra, at least four MLAs or their family members have faced investigations by the Enforcement Directorate in recent years.
Hours after the NCP split, party supremo Sharad Pawar had taken a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that all the party leaders who have switched to the BJP will at least now be cleared of alleged corruption cases. And his supporters are now targeting BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who frequently shared alleged evidence of corruption against top NCP leaders – including Ajit Pawar, Hasan Mushrif and Chhagan Bhujbal – and has been left red-faced with the same leaders joining the saffron party’s alliance.
Let’s take a look at the ED action against these NCP leaders and their relatives so far.
Ajit Pawar
Pawar, who is Sharad Pawar’s nephew and has been sworn in as the second deputy chief minister, was first booked by the Enforcement Directorate in 2019 in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Maharashtra state cooperative bank scam. The case was filed a few months before the 2019 assembly elections.
In July 2021, the central agency attached properties worth Rs 65 crore linked to the NCP leader and his wife Sunetra in Satara. “The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties, including land, building and structure and plant and machinery of M/s Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana,” the ED had said in a release.
The ED alleged that the mill was a cooperative and was privatised in 2010 during Pawar’s tenure as a director of the cooperative bank – it said the sugar factory was auctioned in 2010 at an undervalued price and without following the due procedure.
While the ED submitted the chargesheet in the case in April this year, it didn’t mention the Pawars in the chargesheet and only named the companies.
Hasan Mushrif
An influential leader from Kagal constituency in Kolhapur, Mushrif is a five-time MLA and a former rural development minister. He was first raided by the ED in January this year, with the agency booking him in a Rs 35 crore money laundering case for alleged irregularities and fraud in the control of the Sar Senapati Santaji Ghorpade sugar factory in which his sons Navid, Abid and Sajid are directors.
ED alleged that Mushrif lured farmers to invest money in the sugar factory on the pretext of offering them shares but the preferential shares were given to shell firms operated by his sons. It alleged that two companies – Rajat Consumer Services and Mount Capital – had been pumping crores of money in the sugar factory without any substantial business record through suspicious transactions.
In 2021, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya accused Mushrif of money laundering and the ED filed a case based on a police FIR. The NCP leader was denied anticipatory bail though several court orders granted him protection from arrest. The high court has given him interim relief from arrest until July 11.
Chhagan Bhujbal
One of the tallest OBC leaders in the state, Bhujbal, his son Pankaj and nephew Sameer were booked by the ED in the alleged Maharashtra Sadan scam and a cheating case related to the construction of a residential building in Navi Mumbai in 2016. The ED action came on the basis of FIRs filed by the Maharashtra anti-corruption and at the Taloja Police station in Navi Mumbai, respectively.
The Maharashtra assembly case was triggered by a PIL filed by the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 regarding the grant of contract for construction of the new assembly structure. The litigation raised questions related to allied irregularities and indirect transfer of funds to Bhujbal. In response to the PIL, the court gave orders to form a Special Investigation team comprising the anti-corruption bureau and the ED.
The ED has alleged that Bhujbal misused his power as PWD minister and caused a loss of Rs 840.16 crore to the Maharashtra government in the construction of the assembly building. He was lodged in jail in 2016 and was granted bail in May, 2018. The ED case is pending in court.
The ED attached properties worth Rs 110 crore in 2015, Rs 90 crore in 2016, and worth Rs 22 crore in 2017.
Praful Patel
Patel has joined the Shinde camp but has not been sworn in as minister. He was sacked by Sharad Pawar on Monday for engaging in “anti-party activities”. In June 2019, he was summoned by the ED for an inquiry in the aviation deal case.
The agency claimed that Patel was under their lens for handing out profitable routes to foreign airlines. He was allegedly close to corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar who helped secure favourable deals for private airlines. In its chargesheet against Talwar, the ED had also mentioned Patel.
Aditi Tatkare
While she does not have any ED case against her, her father and top NCP leader Sunil Tatkare was booked for corruption in the alleged multi-crore irrigation scam. His name appeared in the chargesheet in 2017, mentioning that the probe is incomplete.
While the ACB was initially probing the case, the ED was subsequently roped.
The investigation was triggered by a PIL filed in 2012 at the Bombay high court accusing the then water resources minister, Sunil Tatkare, of amassing disproportionate assets. It was alleged that his family had floated 36 companies to get unsecured loans.
In 2015, both the ACB and ED were pulled up by the court for their slow progress in investigating the corruption charges against Tatkare.
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