Several other prominent leaders of NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress are on the radar of ED and Income Tax officials as are Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan, Transport Minister Anil Parab, Army leaders Pratap Sarnaik, Anandrao Adsul and Bhawan Gawli, institutions affiliated to the NCP. Leader Eknath Khadse, his wife Mandakini and their daughter Rohini Is being investigated.
NCP spokesperson and minister Nawab Malik Reacted sharply to Deshmukh’s arrest and IT action against Ajit Pawar. “This is a gross abuse of power. Deshmukh has been brought under PMLA. In the past, our leader Chhagan Bhujbal was also implicated, but the court gave him a clean chit,” Malik said. Feather Ajit PawarMalik was quoted as saying by PTI, “It is being said that the IT department has attached properties belonging to Ajit Pawar. But there is no truth in this. The property belongs to everyone and they say it belongs to Ajit Pawar. This has been done to defame them.”
Malik said the BJP first tried to destabilize the West Bengal government and after failing there, it was targeting the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. “We will fight back both politically and legally. Any attempt to destabilize the MVA government will be thwarted,” Malik said.
A week ago, when the CBI raided Deshmukh’s residences in Mumbai and Nagpur, Sharad Pawar expressed his displeasure that this was the sixth raid in the case and it was the responsibility of the CBI to come up with the results of the raids. . With the IT raids also on close relatives of Ajit Pawar in October, the NCP chief had said that the NDA government was targeting political opponents.
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