Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday confiscated assets worth Rs 6.45 crores of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's brother-in-law alleging money laundering. According to the received information, the ED issued provisional orders against 11 residential flats in Thane belonging to Thackery's wife Rashmi Thackeray, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The 11 flats, located in the Neelambari Project, are purchased under the banner of Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Private Limited, a company 'owned and controlled' by Rashmi's brother Shridhar Madhav Patankar, as claimed by the ED. Patankar's relation to "illegal" assets reportedly came to light during the ED's investigation in the money laundering case against the company Pushpak Bullions - a part of the Pushpak Group against which the ED had launched a probe back in 2017. Assets worth Rs 21 crore belonging to Pushpak Bullions were seized back then, while the property was owned by Mahesh and Chandrakant Patel, who are also related to Uddhav Thackeray.
The group Pushpak Bullions, according to officials, had also diverted around 20-30 crore rupees into the accounts of Patankar's company Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Private Limited, thus making the purchased flats an illegal asset. The entire sequence was executed through a middleman Nandkishore Chaturvedi, who operates several shell companies and used two to three of them to bring the plan to fruition.
The press note issued by the ED in the matter read: “Nandkishore Chaturvedi, who 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 Rs 30 crore to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiri Pvt. Ltd. Thus, the money siphoned off by Mahesh Patel in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate projects by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd." The ED also additionally confiscated some important documents and took possession of Patankar's bank accounts.
The MVA leaders in the state have been long criticizing the ED for working under the orders of the opposition-led central government and falsely framing them for political gains. Reacting to the matter, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, "BJP is taking such actions in states where it is not in power. Their only objective is power. This action by the central agency shows autocracy." Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar also highlighted a political agenda behind the move, emphasizing 'the misuse of central agencies as an important issue the nation is facing today.'
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