NEW DELHI, March 22: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday attached immovable property worth about Rs 6.45 crores of a company owned and controlled by Shridhar Madhav Patankar, brother-in-law of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, in a money laundering case of 2017, officials said.
The federal agency said Patankar’s construction firm Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd was used to park ₹30 crore by Nandkishore Chaturvedi who allegedly opens shell companies to launder money.
Patankar is the brother of Uddhav Thackeray’s wife Rashmi.
The assets attached by ED include 11 flats in a newly constructed building, Neelambari – a high rise at Vartak Nagar in Thane constructed by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti, owned and controlled by Patankar, ED said in a statement on Tuesday.
ED’s action against Patankar has come in connection with an alleged money laundering case against Pushpak Group company on March 6, 2017. The agency had earlier provisionally attached immovable and movable properties of Pushpak Bullion to the tune of ₹21.46 crore belonging to Mahesh Patel, Chandrakant Patel, their family members and companies controlled by them.
“Subsequent investigation (in the 2017 case) revealed that Mahesh Patel had siphoned off and layered funds of a Pushpak group concern, Pushpak Realty, in connivance with one accommodation entry provider Nandkishore Chaturvedi. Pushpak Realty in the garb of sale, transferred funds to the tune of ₹20.02 crore to the entities (shell companies) controlled by Chaturvedi after layering the funds through various connected/unconnected entities,” said the statement.
Chaturvedi, who allegedly operates a number of shell companies, further transferred the money through his shell company Humsafar Dealer Private Limited in the garb of extending unsecured loans in excess of ₹30 crore to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd., the release said further. “Thus, the money siphoned off by Mahesh Patel in connivance with Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate projects by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd.”
“Shridhar Madhav Patankar is not just a relative of Rashmi and Uddhav Thackeray. He is our family member as well. I got to know that ED has taken some action. The central investigating agencies are taking action in states where they are not in power,” said Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson for the party, Sanjay Raut.
“If they think that by creating pressure on the key pillars of Maha Vikas Aghadi the government will collapse or President’s rule can be imposed, then they need to wake up. We will fight against their political vendetta and expose them before the public. We do not think we can expect justice from the courts in this atmosphere, but the public court is bigger. The people of the state know the Thackeray family. Someday they will have to pay for the action taken with a vendetta,” Raut added.
The move came two weeks after the Income Tax Department conducted a series of raids on people considered close to Aditya Thackeray, the chief minister’s son, and his cabinet colleague Anil Parab prompting their party Shiv Sena to accuse the BJP at the centre of selectively targeting political opponents. Raut said “All states that don’t have BJP governments are facing this. Yesterday, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew was questioned by ED. This smacks of a demonic autocracy. Neither Bengal nor Maharashtra will bend,” he added.
Veteran politician and Uddhav Thackeray’s ally from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar echoed him. “This is the misuse of central agencies. This is political vendetta to target the government here. Five to ten years ago, no one even knew what the ED was. Now its ED, ED. The misuse of central agencies that we are seeing… let’s see what happens,” he said.
The ED, which reports to the BJP government at the centre, has been markedly active along with other central investigating agencies in chasing targets in Maharashtra in recent months. The government has denied charges of any bias. Last month, another Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik was arrested by the ED linking him with Pakistan-based terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and is currently in the judicial custody. His arrest followed arrest of a former minister Anil Deshmukh in an alleged corruption case.
(Manas Dasgupta)
