NCP crisis: MLAs inducted into Shinde-Fadnavis government in Maharashtra under probe agency lens

The Opposition has claimed that nine Nationalist Congress Party legislators joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government succumbing to the pressure of central probe agencies. In a surprise development in Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar split the NCP and was sworn in as the deputy chief minister. Eight other NCP leaders took oath as ministers.

Those sworn in as ministers were Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.

Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas B V took a swipe at the BJP and said Hasan Mushrif has become free from corruption charges after joining the Eknath Shinde-led government. Reacting to the development, Srinivas posted on Twitter a video clip of Mushrif taking oath as a Maharashtra minister and said, “This is NCP MLA Hasan Mushrif. A few days ago, ED had filed a case, and raided his house and sugar factory.”

Bhujbal, addressing the press along with Ajit Pawar after joining the NDA in the state, said, “There are allegations that we have made the decision because of the pending cases against us. There is no case against Ajit Dada, the most significant case against me is closed, there are no cases against the others. There is a case against Hasan Mushrif but the courts have been extending interim relief to him from time to time. There is no evidence against him.”

What are the cases against NCP leaders and their kin:

Hasan Mushrif: On January 11, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had conducted searches on multiple premises in Maharashtra as part of a money laundering probe against the Mushrif and others in connection with alleged irregularities in the operations of some sugar mills based in the state that are linked to the NCP MLA, news agency PTI reported.

The ED’s probe is based on an FIR registered in Kolhapur and a complaint filed by the Registrar of Companies concerning allegations with regard to the allotment of shares of Sarsenapati Santaji Ghorpade Sugar Factory to farmers against deposits of ₹10,000. On April 13, the Bombay high court extended till April 27 the interim protection from arrest granted to Mushrif in connection with a money laundering case.

Mushrif had filed the application in the high court following a special court rejecting his anticipatory bail plea on April 11.

Ajit Pawar: The ED submitted a chargesheet against Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill Pvt Ltd linked to Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra in court in the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam. However, the ED has not named the couple as accused in the chargesheet. In its first chargesheet in the alleged financial irregularities at MSCB, the ED claimed that Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill Pvt Ltd had obtained loans worth ₹826 crore from the bank, out of which ₹487 crore is still outstanding. In March, the ED filed a chargesheet against M/s Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd, its chartered accountant Yogesh Bagrecha and Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill Pvt Ltd, highlighting irregularities in the auction of Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sakhar Kharkana (SSK), Pune. The agency claimed that the bank held an auction in such a way that only Guru Commodity Services Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Omkar Developers, could clear the bid.

The agency further alleged that Guru Commodity participated in the auction only as a proxy for Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd, a firm belonging to a group in which Ajit Pawar and his wife were former directors. The property of Guru Commodity was used by Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd to obtain the loan of ₹826 crore.

Further investigation has revealed that Jarandeshwar SSK started operations in the year 1999-2000. The owners had taken loans from the MSC Bank, out of which ₹78.90 crore remained outstanding, on the basis of which its account was named as a non-performing asset. In July 2010, the entity was taken over by the Bank.

Chhagan Bhujbal: In 2018, the former Maharashtra cabinet minister was discharged by a special court in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case being probed by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau. Along with Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer and five others were cleared of all charges by special judge HS Satbhai. A case was filed in 2015 against Bhujbal and 16 others by the ACB after a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Bombay high court seeking an inquiry into alleged irregularities in awarding of contracts of over ₹100 crore for three projects in 2006 when Bhujbal was the state PWD minister. The contracts in question were given to Chamankar Developers for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, a new Regional Transport Office building in Andheri and a state guest house in Malabar Hill. A separate case alleging money-laundering was also filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

Praful Patel: Earlier this year, the ED, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), attached several units at Worli’s Ceejay House, which are owned by former Union minister and NCP leader Praful Patel and his family. The building was constructed by Patel’s firm, Millennium Developers Private Limited, in 2006-07. Last July, the ED had provisionally attached the units located on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th floors as part of its probe in a money laundering case involving former gangster Iqbal Mirchi. Patel, a former aviation minister, also has his primary residence at Ceejay House. The ED had in 2019 attached another two floors which belonged to the Mirchi family. Iqbal Mirchi, a key member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, had died in London in 2013.

The Indian Express reported that Praful Patel had come under the ED lens in a case of alleged money laundering. The probe was related to decisions made by Patel as civil aviation minister in the UPA government and allegations linked to the ceding of profitable routes to foreign airlines, corruption in the opening of training institutes with foreign investment, and Patel’s ties with lobbyist Deepak Talwar who, the ED claimed, was the middleman in these deals.

Patel, however, was not an accused in the FIRs registered by the CBI and the ED. He was questioned once by the ED in the case. The probe is still on.

Aditi Tatkare: In 2017, the ACB in Maharashtra named Aditi Tatkare’s father Sunil Tatkare, an NCP leader, in a chargesheet as it probes the irrigation scam unearthed during the previous Congress-NCP government in the state. The bureau’s chargesheet is on alleged corruption in the Kondhane dam project on Ulhas river. However, in the 3,000-page document, Sunil Tatkare’s name appears in the last paragraph, The Times of India reported. The bureau said since the probe against Tatkare, who was irrigation minister in the previous government, was incomplete, it may later file a “separate chargesheet” against the leader.

However, Anjali Damania, the activist at the forefront of exposing the scam, called the chargesheet “part of a pattern”.