Kolhapur: Joint teams of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department (ITD) are conducting raids at multiple locations including the Kolhapur home of former Maharashtra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Hasan Mushrif in corruption and money-laundering cases. The raids were conducted amid tight security at around 6 am on Wednesday.
"This morning ED raided my house, my daughter's house & my relatives' houses. I request my workers to maintain peace and let the government employees do their work. Raid also happened 1.5 years ago and I gave all info to agency, don't know why raids are happening again," said NCP's Hasan Mushrif on the raids.
The ED raids have followed after BJP leader Kirit Somaiya accused the Maharashtra former minister of corruption. Somaiya made allegations of irregularities of over Rs 158 crore in a sugar mill, besides amassing huge properties, against the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government minister. Teams of around two dozen ED-ITD sleuths swooped on Mushrif's home in Kagal town and other places. After the operation, they confiscated certain documents and other evidence.
Mushrif has denied all the accusations hurled by Somaiya since the past few weeks though the ED had raided some persons reportedly close to the NCP leader. After Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, Mushrif is the third senior NCP leader to come under the ED scanner. They are targeted by various probe agencies in the past couple of years.
A large number of the NCP activists gathered outside Mushrif's home and staged noisy protests, raising slogans against the BJP and the probe agencies, and gave calls for 'Kolhapur shutdown' on Wednesday while Somaiya is expected to visit the temple town later in the day.
Also read: IT officials conduct raids on 20 biz premises in Chhattisgarh
