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ED arrests Eknath Khadse’s son-in-law in Pune land deal case
ED has booked Chaudhary and Khadse, a former revenue minister of the state, and is probing alleged money laundering to the tune of ₹61.25 crore in the land deal.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested Girish Chaudhary, son-in-law of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse, in connection with alleged money laundering linked to a land deal in Pune’s Bhosari. Khadse joined the party last year after exiting the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Officials said Chaudhary was arrested since he did not cooperate during a 12-hour interrogation on Tuesday. Chaudhary was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court on Wednesday that sent him to ED’s custody till July 12..
ED has booked Chaudhary and Khadse, a former revenue minister of the state, and is probing alleged money laundering to the tune of ₹61.25 crore in the land deal.
The case pertains to the purchase of a plot on April 28, 2016 in Bhosari near Pune by Khadse’s family for ₹3.75 crore while the market rate was ₹31 crore. The plot’s ownership was contentious. The industries department acquired it in 1971, but the final award of the plot was not made, and the owner was not compensated for it.
The complainant, Hemant Gawande, alleged that Khadse defrauded the exchequer in the deal. ED’s case is based on the complaint filed by Anti-Corruption Bureau, or ACB, against Khadse and his family members in 2017. The ACB closed the case in 2018 after submitting a report to the concerned court that cleared the minister of any wrongdoing. However, ED continued its investigation into the alleged financial irregularities.
Khadse has maintained that investigations, including those by ACB and Income Tax department, found no irregularities. He claimed that the central agency reopened the probe against him for leaving the BJP.
According to the ED’s case, Khadse and his family fraudulently purchased the said land, despite having knowledge that it was reserved for Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), so that when the MIDC acquired it, they could claim the compensation of more than double the market rate.
ED said Khadse mobilised revenue officials to acquire the said land by MIDC so that his family could get compensation.
