The Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Tuesday provisionally attached properties owned by Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law Shridhar Madhav Patankar in connection with a money laundering case.
ED attaches properties worth Rs. 6.45 Crore in the demonetization fraud case by the Pushpak Group of companies
— ED (@dir_ed) March 22, 2022
As per reports, properties attached by the ED are worth more than Rs 6 crores, including 11 residential flats in the ‘Neelambari’ project in Thane. The properties belong to a firm, Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd &, owned by Patankar.
The development came in the wake of barbs traded by the Shiv Sena and the BJP in Maharashtra over the misuse of agencies against the opposition parties and leaders. Recently, former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis shared a pen drive with 125 hours of “evidence”, alleging how the Maharashtra government was misusing agencies to target the opposition. In retaliation, the Shiv Sena hit back alleging that central agencies were used by the federal government to target regional parties.
However, the attachment of properties owned by Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law took place in connection with the money laundering case against Pushpak Bullion, one of the Group companies of the Pushpak Group. In its investigation, the ED reportedly found that the Pushpak group had funnelled a part of illegally earned money into accounts of Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd and it was used for purchasing 11 flats Neelambari project at Thane.
Uddhav Thackeray’s brother-in-law Shridhar Madhav Patankar owns and controls Shree Saibaba Grihanirmity Pvt Ltd company. Shridhar is the brother of Rashmi Thackrey, wife of Uddhav Thackrey and editor of Saamana newspaper.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday issued a press release related to the attachment. The press release said that earlier ED had recorded a money laundering case against Pushpak Bullion and group companies on 06.03.2017, under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 and has already provisionally attached immovable and movable properties of Pushpak Bullion to the tune of Rs. 21.46 Crore belonging to Mahesh Patel, Chandrakant Patel, their family members and companies controlled by them.
“Subsequent investigation revealed that Mahesh Patel had siphoned off and layered funds of Pushpak group concern Pushpak Realty in connivance with Mr Nandkishore Chaturvedi (Accommodation Entry provider). Pushpak Realty Developer, in the garb of sale, transferred funds to the tune of Rs. 20.02 crore to the entities controlled by Nandkishore Chaturvedi after layering it through various connected/ unconnected entities,” the press release added.
It further said, “Nandkishore Chaturvedi who operates a number of shell companies further transferred the money through his shell company Humsafar Dealer Private Limited in the garb of extending unsecured loans in excess of Rs 30 crores to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiri Pvt. Ltd. Thus, the money siphoned off by Mahesh Patel in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate projects by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd.”
