Chhagan Bhujbal held by ED in Maharashtra Sadan case

Former Maharashtra deputy chief minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal appears before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav)

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal in connection with the money-laundering cases after interrogating him for more than nine hours on Monday. The cases have been registered against him, his nephew Sameer and his son Pankaj. Sameer was arrested earlier on February 1.

The agency has filed two FIRs against Chhagan Bhujbal and others under the provisions of PMLA, based on Mumbai Police FIRs, to probe the Delhi-based Maharashtra Sadan construction scam and the Kalina land-grabbing case.

On Monday, around at 11.30 am, the former Maharashtra PWD minister appeared before the Enforcement Directorate officials in Ballard Pier in South Mumbai. According to sources, a group of senior officers questioned him from noon.

The senior NCP leader was accompanied by MLC Jitendra Awhad and a large number of their followers. The MRA Marg police also detained a few of them when the crowd was trying to create chaos to avoid any untoward incidents.

While entering in the ED office, Chhagan Bhujbal told the media, “I am cooperating with the agency officials and will do the same in future. All this is part of the Opposition’s ploy to trouble us.”

Sources had said that the ED was trying to establish a clear trail of money as the kickbacks the Bhujbals allegedly received were passed through a large number of companies and several transactions were shown as loans in the company records. The rest of the money was used for transactions such as purchasing land for construction projects.

The ED had also brought out orders for attachment of three properties with an estimated worth of over Rs 280 crore in the case under money laundering laws. The ED has conducted searches at nine premises twice, including properties and offices, belonging to the senior Bhujbal, Pankaj, Sameer and few others. NCP had then described the searches as “political vendetta”. The state Anti-Corruption Bureau has already filed a chargesheet against Chhagan Bhujbal, Pankaj, Sameer and 14 others in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case.

The new Maharashtra Sadan was built at the cost of Rs 100 crore when Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra.