The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday provisionally attached immovable properties belonging to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law Shridhar Madhav Patankar.
As per a release, the ED attached immovable properties worth ₹6.45 crore in the case of Pushpak Bullion Private Limited, one of the group companies of Pushpak Group. It includes 11 residential flats in the Neelambari project, Thane belonging to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Private Limited owned and controlled by Mr. Patankar.
On March 6, 2017, the Central agency had recorded a money laundering case against Pushpak Bullion and group companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and had provisionally attached immovable and movable properties of Pushpak Bullion to the tune of ₹21.46 crore. They belonged to Mahesh and Chandrakant Patel (director of Pushpak Bullion) and their family members.
Fund transfer in garb of sale
Investigation has revealed that Mr. Mahesh Patel had siphoned off and layered funds of the Pushpak group concern, Pushpak Realty, in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi (an accommodation entry provider). Pushpak Realty Developer, in the garb of sale, transferred funds to the tune of ₹20.02 crore to the entities controlled by Mr. Chaturvedi after layering it through various connected/ unconnected entities.
As per the ED, Mr. Chaturvedi operates a number of shell companies that are used to transfer money from Humsafar Dealer Private Limited in the garb of extending unsecured loans of ₹30 crore to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Private Limited. Thus, the money siphoned off by Mr. Mahesh Patel in connivance with Mr. Nandkishore Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate projects by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Private Limited, claimed the ED.
‘Vindictive action’
Reacting to the ED’s seizure of property of Mr. Patankar, the ruling tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) termed it vindictive action against political opponents by the BJP.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut termed it an attempt to destabilise the MVA government but warned that such attempt would yield nothing for the BJP. "Maharashtra has never bowed down to such tactics and it never will. These actions are part of the ongoing attempts to bring down the State government," he said.
Mr. Raut pointed out that like Maharashtra, the ED is also targeting the West Bengal government. "It seems the ED has closed offices in States like Gujarat where country's biggest scam took place," he said.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the BJP could not tolerate opposition government in any State. "All these issues and threats are for one reason and that is to bring down the Maharashtra government. Instead of targeting us with false claims, the BJP-led Central government should concentrate more on solving people's problems such as inflation than anything else," he said.
However, the BJP refuted such claims saying the Central agencies were free and fair and were acting based on evidence. "Agencies follow evidence and conduct probe. In future, Mr. Patankar's inquiry will reveal more secrets and Maharashtra's Thackeray government will be exposed further," said former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya.
