ED arrests NCP leader Eknath Khadse's son-in-law in money laundering case

File Photo of Eknath Khadse

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday (July 6, 2021) arrested Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse's son-in-law Girish Chaudhary in a money laundering case. 

Chaudhary was held after being questioned by the law enforcement agency on Tuesday.

The money laundering case is linked to the alleged irregularities in the 2016 Pune land deal. In 2017, Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau had registered a case against Eknath Khadse, his wife Mandakini, Girish Chaudhary and the landowner Abbas Aqani. 

It was alleged that he misused his official powers to facilitate the purchase of government land of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) by his family in the Bhosari area of Pune.

Subsequently, the ED had also registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) against Khadse and his family. The NCP leader was also questioned by ED in January this year. 

Khadse, 68, had left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2020 to join the NCP of former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar. He had resigned from the then Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra cabinet in 2016 after facing allegations regarding the same land deal.

He, however, denied any wrongdoing, saying that the Maharashtra ACB, as well as the Income Tax department, had given him a clean chit in the matter. 

(With PTI inputs)