The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied allegations that the action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the relatives of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was at the party’s behest.
Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said that the agency’s actions were based on the directions of the Bombay High Court.
“The Bombay High Court directed to file an FIR against all the accused in the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam in August 2019. Based on that FIR, the ED filed an ECIR [Enforcement Case Information Report]. How can there be any political involvement? It would be wrong to say that the BJP is behind all this,” said Mr. Fadnavis.
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The ED attached assets worth ₹65 crore in the form of the Jarandeshwar sugar factory which belongs to a relative of Mr. Pawar. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr. Pawar said that many such inquiries have been conducted in the past and nothing substantial had come out of them.
Mr. Fadnavis also defended the letter sent by the State BJP unit to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting an inquiry into allegations against Mr. Pawar and Transport Minister Anil Parab of the Shiv Sena. “What’s wrong in it? It is the job of the opposition to demand probe into allegations. There is a letter by Sachin Waze that has named both of them and therefore we demanded the inquiry,” he said.
The Leader of Opposition said that demanding a probe does not mean branding people as guilty. “We have never called anyone criminal; neither have we demanded that anyone be jailed,” he said.
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