ED raids 7 premises linked to Sena MP
MUMBAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on Monday conducted searches at seven places linked to Bhavana Gawali, Shiv Sena member of parliament (MP) from Yavatmal-washim.
ED officers along with armed CRPF jawans raided five different institutions controlled by Gawali, including Janshikshan Sanstha at Rishod, a degree college at Shirpur, an Ayurveda college at Degaon, Shri Balaji Sahakari Particle Board Karkhana Ltd at Malegaon, and Mahila Utkarsha Pratishthan at Rishod. Two other places including one in Mumbai were also raided.
ED officers claimed they have seized some documents. They also questioned and recorded statements of some people at the places that were raided.
Officers of the central agency said they have registered an enforcement case on the basis of a first information report (FIR) registered with Washim police in connection with alleged financial irregularities in a trust linked to Gawali. ED suspects Gawali’s involvement in money laundering and embezzlement of funds to the tune of ₹17 crore as well as misuse of power in obtaining government grants and funds for a project.
ED sources said the alleged irregularities revolve around Gawali obtaining loan of around ₹43 crore from National Cooperative Development Corporation through Balaji Sahakari Particle Board which was allegedly misused and not utilised for the purpose of the loan.
Harish Sarda, former vicepresident of Shiv Sena’s Washim district unit, had first unearthed the alleged misappropriation of funds at Shri Balaji Sahakari Particle Board Karkhana and named Gawali in his complaints to various authorities. He had also filed petition before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court (HC) after local police and other authorities did not act on his complaints.
Sarda in his complaint alleged money laundering and embezzlement by misusing power by Gawali and her associates in obtaining grants and funds for Balaji plant located at Malegaon in Washim. Gawali’s father Pudalikrao, who also represented the region in the Lok Sabha, was its chief promoter. The factory was set up in 1998.
However, the factory never started functioning. In 1998, the estimated project cost was ₹43.85 crore but undervalued to ₹7.9 crore by a firm called MITCON and was later sold to Bhavana Agro Products run by Gawali on August 16, 2010.
Sarda had in his complaints stated that Gawali’s father illegally transferred 14.90 hectares of factory land to Mahila Utkarsha Pratishthan in 2001 without obtaining necessary permission from competent authorities. Cooperative society land cannot be transferred to any public trust without government approval, Sarda had stated.
Sarda last year sought probe into the irregularities from any central law enforcement agency. ED initiated a probe in the matter and is also looking into alleged misappropriation of funds availed by Gawali’s firm Bhavana Agro Products and Service Ltd from the two banks. The agency is likely to summon Gawali for questioning. Meanwhile, ED on Monday also raided three places in Maharashtra in connection with the Anil Deshmukh money laundering case. These places are related to Nagpur’s deputy RTO Bajrang Kharmate, who is said to be closely associated with transport minister Anil Parab, a close confident of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.