Mumbai The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided several properties in Mumbai, Pune and coastal Ratnagiri linked to Maharashtra transport and parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab as part of a probe on alleged money-laundering and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) violations in connection with a resort in coastal Ratnagiri that Parab purportedly owned.
The federal agency filed a fresh case against the minister and others under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and raided at least seven premises, including the 57-year-old Shiv Sena leader’s private residence in Bandra, his official bungalow Ajinkyatara in Nariman Point, the Sai Resort and Sea Conch Beach Resort in Dapoli, Ratnagiri as well as the Pune residence of Vibhas Sathe, the man who allegedly sold the Dapoli land to Parab in 2017.
Parab, a three-time legislator in the Maharashtra legislative council, is the third minister of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to face a probe on alleged corruption by a Central agency, and several leaders including Shiv Sena party spokesperson Sanjay Raut and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar came out in his support and said the probe was a sign of the Centre’s “political vindictiveness”.
Parab said he had “ nothing to do” with the Dapoli resort located in Ratnagiri district, a popular tourist destination.
“The Dapoli resort is owned by Sadanand Kadam. He has told the same to the court and even submitted details of all the expenditure (related to the resort) . This resort is not even opened for business but the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) lodged a case [against it] citing waste water was being released in the sea. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board as well as local revenue and police departments have given reports that the resort is not functioning. [Despite that] a case was filed and this was used to raid me,” he said after ED personnel left his official residence on questioning him.
“Today’s probe was only related to the resort. I have answered all their questions and I am ready to respond if there are any further queries by the investigating agencies,” he said.
He also said the ED did not confiscate anything from his house. “I submitted certain documents to them…Truth will come out in the probe,” he said.
Several Shiv Sena workers gathered outside the minister’s official as well as personal residence in Mumbai to hold protest against the ED raids.
“The action by Central investigating agencies against Anil Parab and other leaders of our party are happening with political vindictiveness. The entire party and the government firmly stand behind Anil Parab. Such actions will not bring our morale down,” Raut said.
Other charges of alleged irregularities and corruption are also understood to have formed the basis of the latest ED case. One pertains to allegations of the purchase of the Dapoli land by Parab sometime in 2017 for a consideration of ₹1 crore. It was registered in 2019. It is alleged that the land was subsequently sold to a Mumbai-based cable operator Sadanand Kadam in 2020 for a consideration of ₹1.10 crore. In between, a resort was built on the same land, but only the stamp duty was paid and the cost of construction was not accounted for, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said after the Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids in March against some people allegedly close to Parab, including Kadam and deputy regional transport officer (RTO) Bajrang Kharmate.
The CBDT said in a statement in March that the construction of the resort started in 2017 and over ₹6 crore was spent in cash on construction of the resort. “It transpires that the relevant facts about the construction of the resort were not intimated to the Registration authorities and accordingly, the stamp duty was paid only for the registration of the land on both the occasions i.e. in 2019 and in 2020.” The cost of construction of the same has not been accounted for either by the person searched (Kadam) or the politician (Parab) in their books of account, its statement added.
“We have no objection (against such action) if transparency is maintained. The agencies have all the rights but all we expect is they should not be misused,” deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya said Parab’s arrest was “inevitable”.
“Anil Parab’s imprisonment is inevitable as he has been involved in multiple criminal cases. Multiple state and central agencies including Maharashtra police, Central Bureau of Investigation, ED, National Investigation Agency (NIA) will have to investigate the crimes committed by him. He paid ₹25 crore in cash while constructing the resort in Konkan, forged the document for construction violating CRZ regulations, used corruption money for the transactions. The ED is investigating if the money used by the state minister was the same he received for police transfers in which the investigation has already been started by the CBI or [from] a scam in the transport department,” he said.
Somaiya had visited Dapoli in March and accused Parab of not complying with an MoEFCC order issued earlier this year, which said that the Dapoli resort should be demolished for violations of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Somaiya who was prevented from going to the resort by the local police said that he would ensure its demolition.
Somaiya referred to a prosecution complaint filed by an officer of the ministry on March 10 in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) at Dapoli, seeking to prosecute Parab and Sai Resort and Sea Conch Resort.
Another case in which Parab has been under the radar of the ED and was questioned by the agency last September pertains to a money-laundering case connected to former home minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh.
Former police officer Sachin Vaze, arrested by the NIA in the case of recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in Mumbai, had levelled certain allegations against Parab.
In a statement recorded by the ED on June 19, 2021, Vaze claimed that an amount of ₹40 crore was collected from 10 deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) in Mumbai and paid to Deshmukh and Parab in connection with their transfer orders.
“I came to know that a total sum of ₹40 crore was collected from the police officers listed in the said order and out of which ₹20 crore each was given to Shri Anil Deshmukh, through Shri Sanjeev Palande, PS to home minister and Shri Anil Parab through one Shri Bajrang Karmate, RTO Officer,” Vaze added.
Vaze further alleged in a letter that he sought to submit before a court, that in January 2021, Parab had asked him to carry out an inquiry against “fraudulent” contractors listed in the Mumbai civic body and “collect” at least ₹2 crore from about 50 such contractors.
Parab had categorically rejected Vaze’s claims and said that he was ready to face any probe into the allegations.
“The Union government is deploying its agencies to topple the government. But our relationship is strong and we will complete our five-year term,” said Yashomati Thakur, minister for women and child development and Congress leader, commenting on Thursday’s raids.
“This is vindictive politics and misuse of investigating agencies,” Atul Londhe, general secretary and spokesperson, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, said.
(With inputs from PTI)