Mumbai: Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut on Monday alleged that an NGO Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya’s family runs received donations from companies facing probes by central investigating agencies and that the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing will probe them.
Somaiya has not reacted to fresh allegations even as his wife, Medha, filed a police complaint accusing Raut of “character assassination”.
In a series of tweets, Raut said the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in 2016, probed the allegations Somaiya levelled against a company in 2013-14. He added in 2018-19, the company made a “huge” donation to Yuvak Pratisthan, the NGO. He asked if it was “extortion” or money laundering.
“The private trust of the Somaiya family, Yuvak Pratisthan, is getting crores of donations from several companies and it needs to be investigated properly as some companies and builders have been raided by the central agencies. What are these links and how did the Somaiya family trust get crores from them? These are suspicious transactions. The matter is with the charity commissioner and Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police,” Raut said.
He earlier accused Somaiya of misappropriating funds collected to save decommissioned INS Vikrant from getting scrapped. Raut also accused him of being involved in a scam in the construction of toilets by the NGO. He claimed to have evidence of donations received by the NGO when Devendra Fadnavis was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019.
“I have all the evidence of all the donations Yuvak Pratisthan got during the Fadnavis government. These donations were sought by misusing the central agencies… I have not named the companies yet, but I will name them soon. This is just the beginning; soon the ones, who are claiming to fight against corruption, will be unmasked… The scams of two BJP members of the legislative council will also come out,” Raut said.
Reacting to a complaint filed against him, Raut said, “I do not know who has complained. But he [Somaiya] is accused of the misappropriation of funds in the INS Vikrant scam and is out on bail. He can lodge a false complaint; it is fine…”