Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the allegations of former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his family members amassing disproportionate assets, the Bombay high court was told on Thursday.
Public prosecutor Aruna Pai informed the division bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Walmiki Menezes that based on the complaint lodged by city resident Gouri Bhide, the EOW had started the inquiry. Pai’s statement came after the bench closed Bhide’s public interest litigation for orders after briefly hearing all the parties.
In her PIL, Bhide, whose grandfather owned the Shree Rajmudra Printing Press in Prabhadevi, stated that though the Thackeray family had no official source of income, it had amassed huge properties in a metro city like Mumbai and neighbouring Raigad district which could run into crores of rupees.
The PIL added that raids conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate revealed that “some persons who are very close to Respondents No 5 to No 7 (Uddhav Thackeray, his wife Rashmi and sons Aaditya and Tejas), have been closely interrogated and are still under the radar” of the agencies. “It is crystal clear that huge undisclosed properties, cash and other wealth found with those persons have a close nexus to Respondents No 5 to No 7,” the PIL stated.
Bhide also pointed out that “during the lockdown, while print media across India faced heavy losses, Prabodhan Prakashan, practically owned by the Thackeray family, showed a huge turnover of ₹42 crore and booked a profit of ₹11.5 crore”. “It seems to be a clear case of turning black money into white,” the PIL stated.
“It would be interesting to observe that till 2018, Prabodhan Prakashan had no turnover to report. Suddenly for 2019, it rose to ₹37.18 crore and reported a profit of ₹3.25 crore. In the year 2020, the company showed a turnover of ₹44 crore and booked a profit of some ₹9 crore,” the PIL added.
Bhide, a behavioural and soft skill consultant who argued in person, told the court that an impartial and thorough probe by central agencies was necessary to unearth the truth. According to her petition, she was inspired by the motto “Na khaunga na khane doonga”.
The Thackerays, on their part, sought dismissal of the PIL on the ground that it was without any factual foundation. Their counsels pointed out that the petition was absolutely bereft of material and filed purely on assumptions. Besides, they added, the petitioner had an alternative remedy of filing a private complaint before the appropriate court, seeking a probe based on her complaint, and therefore the PIL was not required to be entertained.
The court had closed the matter after briefly hearing the parties in the morning sessions. However, in the afternoon session, Pai mentioned the matter and told the court that she had instructions to inform it that “the EOW has already started a preliminary enquiry into the allegations”.
Uddhav Thackeray’s counsel, senior advocate Aspi Chinoy objected to this, saying it was abuse of the process of law. Bhide too was surprised by the statement, and said that she too had not been informed about any such inquiry initiated by the police and requested the court to direct the central agencies to conduct the probe. “When the matter was being heard in the court, the PP informed us that the EOW had started a preliminary inquiry in the case,” she told HT. “This is a partial achievement for us. I am hopeful that the high court will give us justice.”