I-T raids firms linked to Ajit Pawar’s family

The Income Tax Department on Thursday raided some businesses linked to family members of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and some real estate developers on charges of alleged tax evasion, official sources said.

They said the searches were being conducted in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, and a few other cities of in Maharashtra and Goa. The premises linked to business groups such as DB Realty, Shivalik, Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK) and businesses linked to his sisters are being covered under the ongoing operation, the sources said. Some documents have been recovered and are being studied, they said.

Jarandeshwar SSK was in the news recently after the Enforcement Directorate, in July, attached over ~65 crore worth of land, building, plant and machinery of its sugar mill at Chimangaon-koregaon in Satara under the antimoney laundering law. The ED had claimed that the cooperative-run sugar mill was linked to Pawar and his family.