The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Maharashtra transport and parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab to appear before the agency on Wednesday morning for questioning in connection with the alleged money laundering linked to his resort in Dapoli, Ratnagiri.
A senior ED official confirmed the development late on Tuesday.
The ED had raided several locations in Mumbai, Pune and Ratnagiri, linked to Parab, as part of its probe into the alleged money laundering and possible coastal regulation zone violations linked to a piece of land in Dapoli on which the resort was built.
Parab, 57, a three-time legislator in the legislative council, is the third minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi to face a probe by a central agency on corruption charges.
The agency in May filed a fresh case against the minister and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and raided at least seven premises, including Parab’s private residence in Bandra, his official bungalow Ajinkyatara in south Mumbai, a beach resort in Dapoli, as well as the Pune residence of Vibhas Sathe, the man who allegedly sold the Dapoli plot to Parab.
The ED’s case pertains to allegations of the purchase of the Dapoli plot by Parab in 2017 for ₹1 crore. It was registered in 2019. It is alleged that the plot was subsequently sold to a Mumbai-based cable operator Sadanand Kadam in 2020 for ₹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 department conducted raids in March against some people allegedly close to Parab, including Kadam and deputy regional transport officer Bajrang Kharmate.
The CBDT said in a statement in March that the construction of the resort began in 2017 and over ₹6 crore was spent in cash to build it. “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 – in 2019 and in 2020.” The cost of construction of the resort had not been accounted for either by the person searched (Kadam) or the politician (Parab) in their books of account, the statement said.
Earlier in March, Parab denied owning the resort in Dapoli when Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya visited the coastal town and accused Parab of not complying with a union ministry of environment, forest and climate change order, which said 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 he would ensure its demolition.
“The action by central investigating agencies against Parab and other leaders of our party are happening with political vindictiveness,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said.