The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun attaching the properties of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stalwart and former public works department (PWD) minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his family member
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun attaching the properties of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stalwart and former public works department (PWD) minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his family members with the first one being a land in Navi Mumbai, the current market value of which is Rs 160 crore.
Confirming the development, a highly placed source from ED said, “There are more properties to be attached and the work is on.” The attachment of property is part of the two Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) registered against the former minister, his son NCP member of Legislative Assembly Pankaj and former Member of Parliament nephew Sameer, amongst others. The cases are registered under relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
As part of their investigations, ED has attached a 25-acre property in Kharghar, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Taloja police. The property’s owner is Devisha Infrastructure. Sameer and Pankaj are directors of the firm. The land attached by the ED is the same land where the duo was to build Hex World, but the construction never took off.
The firm had taken a total of Rs 44 crore for around 2,300 flats from various prospective buyers since 2009 for the mega residential township in Rohinjan village in Kharghar. On June 13, the investors approached the Taloja police who registered cases under Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) against Sameer and Pankaj and others.
The two ECIR filed by the Enforcement Directorate came after the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered a couple of FIRs against the Bhujbals. The first one was for irregularities in allotment of a prime piece of land in Kalina to a leading developer for construction of a library. It is alleged that Indiabulls gave Bhujbal kickbacks amounting to Rs 2.5 crore.
The second FIR was against Bhujbal for alleged irregularities in the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan building in Delhi, a Regional Transport Office building in Andheri and a state guest house called High Mount in Malabar Hill amounting to several hundred crores. The ED is probing the money trail.
