After the Opposition Congress and NCP, the ruling Shiv Sena on Wednesday came out in support of MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Wednesday, a day ahead of his appearance before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with a loan default probe case.
A day after the MNS chief said that he would “honour” the summons issued to him by the ED and exhorted his party workers to maintain calm and restraint on August 22, Sena president Uddhav Thackeray threw his weight behind his cousin Raj, by saying that he did not think anything would come in the case in which the latter was investigated.
At a news conference convened to welcome sitting Congress MLA Nirmala Gavit into his party, Uddhav reacted to the news reports about the summons issued by Raj in a loan default case and said: “I don’t think anything will come out in tomorrow’s questioning ( of Raj Thackeray)”.
Reacting to the Sena president’s comment, MNS spokesperson Sandip Deshpande — who had earlier dubbed the ED’s summons to his party president as an “act of vendetta” — said, “All the people in the state are aware that there is nothing to the case. I am confident that my president will unscathed from this case”.
The Opposition Congress and NCP leaders had earlier slammed the BJP-led NDA Government for “misusing” the investigating agencies to “target” its critics. They had said that Raj was being “targeted” as he had campaigned against the Narendra Modi Government in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Raj, it may be recalled, had also brought the Opposition parties together on one platform on the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and demanded that instead of EVMs, ballot papers be used to hold the State Assembly polls in Maharashtra.
The ED is investigating the alleged irregularities in the IL&FS’s loans and investments worth over Rs 860 crore in M/s Kohinoor CTNL, a company funded by former Maharashtra CM Manohar Joshi’s son Unmesh Joshi.
M/s Kohinoor CTNL has been under ED scanner for being a prominent defaulter of IL&FS, amounting to an estimated Rs 135 crore.Unmesh along with son along with IL&FS and Raj Thackeray-owned Matoshree Construction had in 2005 jointly had made a bid and bought for the NTPC’s Kohinoor Mill’s 4.8-acre property for Rs 421 crore.
In 2008, the IL&FS reneged from the deal and surrendered its shares
for only Rs 90 crore, as against an investment of Rs 225 crore made in M/s Kohinoor CTNL. Following the IL &FS’s exit, Raj exited from the venture after selling his shares.
In a statement put out in Marathi and English through his official twitter handle, Raj had said on Tuesday that like he did several other cases registered
against him in the past, he would “honour” the summons issued to him and asked his party workers not to come anywhere near the investigation agency’s office on Thursday.
Miffed by the summons issued to their party president, the MNS workers had earlier threatened to storm the ED when Raj responds to its summons on Thursday.
It had also called for a bandh in a satellite city of Mumbai, on August 22, in protest against the summons issued by the ED.
Following Raj’s appeal to its workers to maintain calm, the MNS has called off its plans to take out a morcha to ED on Thursday and also withdrew its bandh call in Thane.