Another NCP Minister faces Enforcement Directorate heat in Maharashtra

Prajakt Tanpure’s assets attached over allegations in co–op sugar factories’ sale

The Directorate of Enforcement on Monday attached assets including 90 acres of erstwhile Ram Ganesh Gadkari SSK held in the name of M/s Takshshila Securities Pvt. Ltd. and two pieces of non–agricultural land admeasuring 4.6 acres belonging to Prajakt Tanpure under the PMLA, 2002.

Mr. Tanpure, a Minister of State in the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, is the third from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) facing the action from the ED after Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik.

Mr. Tanpure was earlier in December 2021 questioned for seven hours by the ED officials after which he said he had answered all the questions satisfactorily.

Last week, following the arrest of Mr. Malik by the ED, a local Sena corporator Yashawant Jadhav’s house was raided by Income Tax authorities.

Mr. Jadhav’s wife is Sena MLA while he is the chairman of the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In the case of Mr. Tanpure, the ED had initiated the PMLA investigation based on the FIR dated August 26, 2019, registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Mumbai police.

The FIR was lodged in pursuance to the order dated August 22, 2019 of the Bombay High Court on the allegations that the cooperative sugar factories known as Sahkari Sakhar Karkhana (SSKs) were fraudulently sold by the then officials and directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) at throw away prices to related entities without following due procedure.