Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, May 26: Multiple searches involving Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena politician Anil Parab were conducted by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday.
The 57-year-old Sena leader, who also serves as the state’s transport minister, is thought to be close to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Mumbai | Enforcement Directorate conducts raid at a location of Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab in Mumbai
ED raids are underway at seven locations in Pune and Mumbai pic.twitter.com/WOFa8fGO88
— ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2022
The searches were carried out in Mumbai and Pune, according to sources, after the central investigate agency filed a new case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In Dapoli, where the state transport minister owns a resort, searches were also conducted. Officials from the investigation agency were also said to have been present at Parab’s home.
The move by the agency is in response to charges that Parab purchased a block of land in Dapoli in 2017 for Rs. 1 crore, but it was only registered in 2019. According to the tax authorities, this land was then sold in 2020 for Rs. 1.10 crore to one of the people who had been the subject of the searches.
Earlier Nawab Malik, a Maharashtra minister and NCP leader, was arrested in February in a money-laundering case linked to the architect of the 1993 Mumbai explosions, Dawood Ibrahim. He is still in prison three months later.
The search was said to have begun around 7 a.m. on Thursday. The Enforcement Directorate had previously questioned Parab in relation to a case involving former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.