Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to its Mumbai office on December 30. The central investigating agency is likely to probe the alleged money laundering angle in the Bhosri land deal case, in which the land was purportedly bought at an undervalued price.
Khadse has confirmed receiving the notice with HT and said he will report to ED.
The former heavyweight is under scrutiny for allegations of graft and conflict of interest in a land deal in Bhosari near Pune. It is said that the plot was bought by his wife Mandakini Khadse and son-in-law, Girish Choudhary, in 2016 for Rs3.75 crore against the prevalent market rate of Rs30 crore.
The former state minister had dumped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in October to join Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
Without taking any name, Khadse has directed his attack on former Maharashtra CM from BJP Devendra Fadnavis.
“He wants to harass me and thus the same case is being probed again and again by different agencies,” Khadse said. He had blamed Fadnavis for all his “miseries” in the past four years previously too.
“The land was bought at Rs3.75 crore and the government has already spent Rs14 crore-Rs15 crore on various probes. The case was investigated by the Pune ACB (anti-corruption bureau) as well as by the Nashik ACB. Pune ACB had submitted its closure report before the court. The state had spent Rs3 crore-Rs4 crore on the Zoting committee (appointed by the Fadnavis government) too, to probe the same case. It was also probed by the Income Tax department. This will be the fifth probe in the same land deal,” Khadse said, stressing that he has been targeted.
{{/usCountry}}“The land was bought at Rs3.75 crore and the government has already spent Rs14 crore-Rs15 crore on various probes. The case was investigated by the Pune ACB (anti-corruption bureau) as well as by the Nashik ACB. Pune ACB had submitted its closure report before the court. The state had spent Rs3 crore-Rs4 crore on the Zoting committee (appointed by the Fadnavis government) too, to probe the same case. It was also probed by the Income Tax department. This will be the fifth probe in the same land deal,” Khadse said, stressing that he has been targeted.
{{/usCountry}}He told reporters at Dhule that people from across the state are calling and expressing sympathy with him.
“They also felt that this is a kind of injustice. It appears that they didn’t like the probes one after the other, but decisions have been made and we have to follow them,” he said.
In the Pune ACB’s closure report, Khadse was given a clean chit. In its report filed before a Pune court in 2018, ACB had said there was no evidence to prove that the former revenue minister was aware that his wife and son-in-law had purchased the plot.
Khadse was a prominent BJP leader from north Maharashtra and enjoys a significant hold in the region. He belongs to Leva Patil, one of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities that has a sizable population in north Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said those who are against BJP are being targeted by using central agencies. “Even Sena leaders have received notices from ED. You [BJP] aren’t strong enough to fight them politically, so you’re making them bow before you by unleashing ED, CBI, Income Tax,” said Raut.
Senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal echoed the sentiment. “It was bound to happen. Khadse himself had said this when he had left BJP and joined NCP. Those who will speak against BJP, be it Pratap Sarnaik, Khadse or Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD president), they try to create trouble for them,” Bhujbal told reporters.