Undertaking fresh action in the money laundering case against former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his family, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday attached nearly two dozen properties worth Rs 90 crore.
With the latest seizure of assets under the provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA), the total value of attachments in this case now stands at Rs 433 crore.
“A total of 22 immovable properties like flats, shops, agricultural and non-agricultural land, industrial plots in Mumbai, Nashik and Ahmednagar have been provisionally attached under PMlA today. The estimated market value is Rs 90 crore,” agency officials said.
Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer are at present lodged in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai after the ED had arrested them earlier this year. Bhujbal’s son and NCP legislator Pankaj, also an accussed in the case, has recently been granted interim protection from arrest.
According to the ED, the Bhujbal family allegedly had conspired along with several others to divert or ‘launder’ kickbacks received by Chhagan Bhujbal, when he was the State PWD Minister.
On March 30 this year, the agency had filed a chargesheet naming Bhujbal, Pankaj, Sameer and firms such as DB Realty, Balwa group, Neelkamal Realtors and Builders, Neelkamal Central Apart-ment llP and Kakade Infrastructure.
The charges relate to the contract for construction of the State guest house — ‘Maharashtra Sadan’ — in Delhi and the Kalina land-grabbing case in Mumbai.
This is the fifth attachment order issued by the agency in the case.
An attachment order under PMlA is aimed at depriving the accused from obtaining benefits of their alleged ill-gotten wealth and the accused parties can appeal against the order before the Adjudicating Authority of the said Act within 180 days.
The agency has filed two FIRs against Bhujbal, Pankaj and Sameer and others under PMlA, based on Mumbai Police’s ACB FIRs.