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Ajit Pawar confirms income tax raids on firms, shares 'only grief'
“I don’t know whether they were conducted for political purposes or they want more information as we have been paying taxes on time,” Ajit Pawar said.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said on Thursday that some firms related to him were raided by the income tax department earlier in the day. Pawar said he has no complaint, but feels bad over similar action taken against his relative's firms.
"It is true IT has raided a few firms related to me. It is their right... I don’t know whether they were conducted for political purposes or they want more information as we have been paying taxes on time," the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader told reporters in Mumbai.
"However, my only grief is that they conducted raids on the premises related to my three sisters. One of them stays in Kolhapur and other two in Pune," he added.
The deputy chief minister said he could not understand the reason behind raids on them.
"If raids were conducted because they are my sisters, then people of the state should think about the level the central agencies are being misused," said Pawar.
Pawar's name had surfaced in a money laundering case involving Maharashtra State Co-operative (MSC) Bank in July. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached assets worth ₹65.75 crore belonging to a sugar mill in Satara district in connection with the case.
