In what is being seen as an act of political vendetta that came in the wake of the fall of the MVA Government, the Income Tax (I-T) department has sent a notice to NCP chief Sharad Pawar in connection with poll affidavits filed by him in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2020.
Confirming the development himself, Pawar said in a lighter vein that he had received a “love letter” from the IT department. In a series of tweets put out in Marathi, the NCP chief said: “The investigating agencies are being used (by the Government) against its political rivals. The department told me that it is investigating the poll affidavit filed by me in the 2004 LS polls.”
“Fortunately I have preserved documents that I had filed before the IT department then. Similarly I have received notices for the affidavits filed by me for the Rajya Sabha polls held in 2009, 2014 and 2020 Raj Sabha polls”
Pawar charged that the ED and other central investigating agencies were being used by the BJP-led government at the Centre. “The result of use of ED and other agencies can be seen now. Recently a lot of MLAs received notices from the ED. The new trend ( of misusing ED) has started in politics. Till five years, we did not know the existence of ED. These days even people in the rural areas joke that the ED has been let loose on them”.
It may be recalled that Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar, several other politicians and officials linked to the Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) loan disbursal scam, were booked in a money laundering scam by the ED on September 23. 2019. However, he cancelled his plans to appear before the ED officials on September 28, 2019, as they advised him not to appear before them.
A month after the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai police – acting on a Bombay High Court directive – had registered an FIR with the MRA Marg Police Station against those named in the MSCB scam, 2019 the ED recorded Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against Sr Pawar, Ajit Pawar, the bank’s then chairman and several others.
While Ajitdada and others are alleged to be directly involved in the scam, Sr Pawar figures in the scam as being a person who was allegedly involved in the conspiracy and abetment of the scam.