Pune land deal: ED arrests NCP leader Eknath Khadse’s son-in-law

Cranking up the strain on leaders of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, arrested Girish Chaudhary, son-in-law of former Revenue Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse, in a cash laundering case associated to a land deal in Pune’s Bhosari.

The company interrogated Mr. Chaudhary until late night on Tuesday in reference to the land seize in a Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) zone in Bhosari space.

The ED’s motion comes days after it arrested two shut aides of former Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh on June 26 and connected a sugar manufacturing unit in Satara run by one in every of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s family members in reference to the Maharashtra Cooperative State Bank case.

Along with Mr. Chaudhary, Mr. Khadse’s identify had figured prominently within the case which issues a first-rate plot of land in Bhosari that the latter had allegedly acquired by illicit means by abusing his place as Revenue Minister within the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities. The incident had triggered Mr. Khadse’s fall from grace inside the BJP apart from prompting his resignation from the Fadnavis Cabinet.

In January final yr, the ED recorded Mr. Khadse’s assertion within the case.

Earlier in 2018, in its remaining submission to a Pune court docket, the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had stated that it failed to seek out “definite proof” that Mr. Khadse had misused his workplace as Revenue Minister to illicitly seize a three-acre plot within the possession of the MIDC for his non-public use close to the sprawling township of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

However, a particular court docket in Pune in December 2019 then allowed an intervention utility filed by anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania difficult the ACB’s ‘clean chit’ to Mr. Khadse, who was then with the BJP.

Ms. Damania had been nudging the ACB to probe Mr. Khadse since 2017, after having submitted paperwork allegedly containing proof of the senior BJP leader’s illicit transactions.

In May 2016, city-based whistleblower Hemant Gawande additionally filed a grievance towards Mr. Khadse in Pune, which, amongst different elements, finally led to the latter’s resignation from the Cabinet.

In April 2017, the ACB lastly lodged an FIR towards Mr. Khadse in compliance with the Bombay High Court’s directive based mostly on Mr. Gawande’s grievance.

The ACB lodged the FIR below Sections 13 (1) d, 13 (2) and 15 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) towards the previous Revenue Minister, his spouse Mandakini, Mr. Chaudhary and Abbas Rasool Ukani, the unique proprietor of the plot stated to be in cahoots with Mr. Khadse in allegedly engineering the rip-off.

Mr. Gawande stated that the unique valuation of the plot, in keeping with the Sub-Registrar, stood at ₹31 crore, a far cry from Mr. Khadse’s determine of ₹3.75 crore. Mr. Gawande had alleged that the worth of the property when Mr. Khadse’s kin utilized for compensation would stand at ₹65 crore, twice the unique market valuation (calculated as per the compensation below the brand new Land Acquisition coverage of 2013).