Two months after he quit the BJP and joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned senior NCP leader Eknath Khadse to appear before it on December 30 in connection with an alleged MIDC land scam in Pune.
Sixty-eight-year-old Khadse, who had – while joining the BJP — said that “if the BJP unleashes ED against me, then I will release CDs against the BJP leaders”, confirmed on Saturday evening that he had received summons from the ED and he would appear before the investigating agency on December 30.
Talking to media persons at his Muktainagar residence in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra, Khadse said: “I have received the summons from the ED to appear before it on December 30. I will appear before the agency on that day. I have already four inquiries in this land deal. I will cooperate with the ED. As far as my releasing CDs against the BJP leaders, I will do it at a later stage,”
“The land in the MIDC deal has been transferred in the name of my wife. I have absolutely nothing to do with this land deal. Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Pune, the Anti Corruption Bureau, Nashik, Income Tax department and a judicial committee headed by retired Bombay HC judge Dinkar Zoting, had looked into the allegations against me. Now the ED has summoned me for questioning. I will appear before it,” Khadse said.
Interestingly enough, when he joined the NCP on October 23, 2020, Khadse had recalled a conversation with State NCP president Jayant Patil and said: “In a conversation with Jayant Patil some time, I had expressed my desire to join the NCP. Patil jocularly told me: if you join the NCP, then the BJP will unleash ED against me. Then I told him: if the BJP unleashes ED against me, then I will release CDs against the BJP leaders”.
Khadse, who was incidentally number two minister at one stage in the previous BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government, had gone to say that he would expose them about their alleged involvement in land scams.
“The BJP-led government had harassed me by framing me in a land scam. Let some days pass, I will expose all such BJP who grabbed plots of land illegally... I will also demand action against those who slapped cases against me by violating the rules,” Khadse had said.
A judicial committee, headed by retired Bombay HC judge Dinkar Zoting, appointed by the Maharashtra government earlier to probe the allegations of corruption against Khadse, had earlier given a clean chit to the Pune land deal case.
It may be recalled that on June 4, 2016, Khadse had resigned from his post as the State Revenue Minister over irregularities in the purchase of a plot of land at Bhosari in Pune district.
Acting on a directive by the Bombay High court on March 8, 2017, the State ACB had registered a case against Khadse for alleged misuse of office and corruption sections 23 (1), 1 (D), (2), (15) of Prevention of Corruption Act and section 109 (abetment) IPC and the ACB had investigated the case involving the purchase of a plot of land at Bhosari at a cheaper rate.
The charge against Khadse was that he, his wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhary had hatched a conspiracy and purchased a 3-acre plot of land at Bhosari near Pune owned Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in the name of his kin for Rs 3.75 crore as against the market price of Rs 40 crore. On his part, Khadse had denied that he had indulged in any wrong doing in the Pune land deal case.
Even the State ACB had gone on to give a clean chit to Khadse. The ACB had even filed a final report before a Pune court on April 30, 2018, stating that it had not been able to prove the allegations of corruption against Khadse in the land case.