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Sharad Pawar says IT searches excessive use of power
PUNE: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar reacted strongly to the IT searches at premises linked to Ajit Pawar and kin saying the action smells of excessive use of power and could have possibly been a reaction to his strong position on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, which he had likened to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre
PUNE: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar reacted strongly to the IT searches at premises linked to Ajit Pawar and kin saying the action smells of excessive use of power and could have possibly been a reaction to his strong position on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, which he had likened to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Speaking to reporters at his hometown Baramati on Thursday, Pawar said, “The way farmers were killed at Lakhimpur Kheri, everyone strongly condemned the incident. Even I spoke about it strongly and likened the incident with Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It has angered those in power and the ongoing developments may have been a result of this.”
The NCP chief, who initially desisted from commenting saying the action is still on, also called the searches at his nieces (Ajit Pawar’s sisters) locations as excessive use of power.
“I read Ajit Pawar’s statement also. He had said the IT department has powers to carry out operation at his premises, but the searches at residences of relatives (Ajit’s sisters) is an excessive use of power,” Pawar said.
Official sources said that searches were conducted till evening across Mumbai, Pune, Satara and a few other cities in Maharashtra and Goa. The premises linked to business groups such as Daund sugar mill, Shivalik and Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sugar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK) and businesses linked to Ajit Pawar’s sisters in Pune and Kolhapur were being searched, they said.
Other NCP leaders termed the income tax department’s Thursday searches at premises linked to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and his kin as an attempt to “defame” its leaders. While Virdhawal Jagdale, director at the Daund sugar factory in Pune district, maintained that the mill has complied with all rules while paying taxes.
Jagdale, a member of the Pune zilla parishad from NCP, did not deny his association with Ajit Pawar saying that his father was a legislator and that he himself is a NCP leader in the zilla parishad. “The income tax officials arrived around 7am at our factory, which has been in operation for the past 13 years. All through, we have paid taxes and complied with norms. As far as the searches are concerned, I do not know why they are being carried out but we will cooperate with the income tax officials,” Jagdale said.
Following the income tax department raids on some businesses linked to members of Ajit Pawar’s family and to real estate developers for alleged tax evasion, Maharashtra NCP president and state cabinet minister Jayant Patil blamed the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) for trying to defame NCP leaders.
Patil told reporters in Pune, “I have been saying for a long time that no sooner BJP leaders take our leaders’ names, actions by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), income tax department and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) follow. There is no doubt that it is a BJP conspiracy to defame our leaders.” Patil wondered aloud why the BJP is ‘so afraid’ of the NCP, which shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra.
Ajit Pawar, who is also the state finance minister, said in Mumbai on Thursday that some entities linked to him have been raided. He said that while he has no problem with the income tax department raiding companies linked to him, he is upset that his three sisters were dragged into this.
Jarandeshwar SSK was in the news recently after the ED in July attached over Rs65 crore worth of land, buildings, plant and machinery of the sugar mill at Chimangaon-Koregaon in Satara under the anti-money laundering law. The ED claimed that the cooperative-run sugar mill is linked to Ajit Pawar and his family.
On Wednesday, BJP leader and former Member of Parliament (MP) Kirit Somaiya visited Jarandeshwar SSK in Satara and Baramati town in Pune, from where Ajit Pawar is an member of legislative assembly (MLA).
