Arrested NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal to be produced in court -Governance Now

Arrested NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal to be produced in court

After grilling Bhujbal for over nine hours, the ED arrested him in a money laundering case

Geetanjali Minhas | March 15, 2016 | Mumbai

#bhujbal money laundering #enforcement directorate #Chhagan Bhujbal #Maharashtra Sadan scam

NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal

Former Maharashtra deputy chief minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was arrested on Monday evening by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), will be produced in a special PMLA court today. Since he is a sitting MLA, information of his arrest will be communicated to the speaker of the Maharashtra assembly.

After grilling Bhujbal for over nine hours, the ED arrested him in a money laundering case, which the agency claims caused a loss of Rs 870 crore to the exchequer.

The ED is probing alleged kickback received by Bhujbal and his family members for awarding government projects to select contractors through companies owned by his family. These contracts were awarded from November 2004 to September 2014 when Bhujbal was that state PWD minister.

As per the ED, Bhujbal was non-committal on the sources of cash and claimed that the decision to award contracts during his tenure as PWD minister was taken by the cabinet sub-committee. “He was non-committal on the sources of cash. Since his answers were unsatisfactory, we arrested him,” said an ED officer.

According to the agency, Bhujbal was questioned on large sums of cash, allegedly laundered with the help of hawala operators into shell companies floated by his nephew Sameer and son Pankaj. Sameer has already been arrested and lodged in Arthur Road Jail. The ED has seized passports of Bhujbal and Pankaj.

The state anti-corruption bureau has already filed a chargesheet against Chhagan Bhujbal, Pankaj, Sameer and 14 others in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case, which was built at the cost of Rs 100 crore when Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra.

ED had earlier brought out orders for attachment of three properties with an estimated worth of over Rs 280 crore in the case under money laundering laws and twice conducted searches at nine premises including properties and offices belonging to Bhujbal, Pankaj, Samir and others.

Comments

Other News

Four trends that will shape healthcare post-Covid

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted economies and healthcare systems across the world. Even in the countries like the US that have the highest spend on healthcare and public health emergency preparedness, the impact of coronavirus pandemic on health and livelihoods of people has been tremendous. There are

India to play leading role in global revival: Modi

India would play a leading role in the global revival, prime minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, as he addressed the inaugural session of India Global week via video-conference. He said that this is closely linked with two factors. “First is - Indian talent and second is India`s

BMC spells out numbers to counter Fadnavis’ claims

The BrihanMumbai municipal corporation (BMC) has countered Maharashtra leader of opposition Devendra Fadanvis’s suspicions of fewer Covid-19 tests, as it outlined various measures it has adopted since the first test conducted on February 3, and how it has gradually brought down the number of cases in

Mumbai opts for “most liberal Covid-19 testing” in the world

As part of the four T strategy of trace-test-track-treat, Mumbai – the most affected city in India – has decided to make Covid-19 tests accessible to all. The municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has come out with guidelines allowing all laboratories to conduct RT-PCR (

Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger

In a major development on July 6, the Chinese army started moving back its tents, vehicles as well as troops from locations where disengagement was agreed upon in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. This is a significant milestone in regional geopolitics with India having been successful in isolating the

Hiranandani Group launches ambitious data centre project

With the Covid-19 pandemic pushing more online activity and the capacity usage of data centres going up, India’s largest data centre (DC) building and the biggest tier-IV data centre, Yotta NM1,the second largest in the world, has been launched in Mumbai. The launch event on Tue