The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday took action against Shiv Sena Minister of Transport Anil Parab in a money laundering case along with others. Seven premises linked to the Minister in various cities of Maharashtra including Pune and Ratnagiri were raided by the authorities.
According to the reports, the ED officials are also raiding the residential premises owned by the Minister in Mumbai. Parab has a family home in Mumbai’s Bandra region and his official residence is at Marine Drive in Mumbai.
Enforcement Directorate conducts raids at seven locations in Pune and Mumbai of Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab
— ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2022
Parab is accused of purchasing a plot of land in Dapoli in 2017 for ₹1 crore, but not registering it until 2019. While the agency is also looking into certain additional allegations, reports mention that in the recent scenario, the Dapoli land was further purchased by Sadanand Kadam, a Mumbai-based cable company for Rs 1.10 crore in 2020 to build a resort on the same property. An earlier probe by the Income Tax Department said that the building of the resort began in 2017 and that over Rs 6 crore have been spent in cash on the project.
There are several other charges of corruption and money laundering in the name of Parab. Earlier, the ED summoned him in August 2021 in connection with a money laundering case. He was asked to appear before the investigation officer but he declined to appear citing official engagements.
Later the ED issued a second summons to the Shiv Sena leader in September 2021. The ED wanted to question Parab in connection with the Rs 100 crore bribery cum extortion racket in the Maharashtra police establishment as alleged by former police commissioner Param Bir Singh. The Bombay High Court had earlier asked the CBI to probe the allegations of corruption that had led to the resignation of Anil Deshmukh as home minister in April last year.
The name of Anil Parab has surfaced among key conspirators of this scam. Sachin Vaze had claimed that in August 2020, he was called to the official bungalow of Anil Parab. During the meeting, Anil Parab told Sachin Vaze to extort Rs 50 crores from officials of Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) to end an inquiry. Sachin Vaze further stated that in January 2021, Anil Parab once again called him at his official bungalow and asked to look into the fraudulent contractors listed with BMC. The Minister asked him to collect at least Rs 2 crores each from 50 such contractors.
Later, Param Bir Singh had confirmed that Sachin Vaze had informed him about the same after he was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner. In the letter, Vaze had also claimed that Bajrang Kharmate handled transfer posting related work for Anil Parab. Reportedly, the ED also carried out searches at premises Bajrang Kharmate in Pune in year 2021.
This three-time Shiv Sena MLA, who is a lawyer by profession, was inducted into the MVA cabinet in December 2019.
