The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Friday conducted searches at the premises of Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav and his wife, Sena MLA Yamini Jadhav, in Mumbai on charges of tax evasion.
According to sources, several teams of department officials conducted the raids against Mr. Jadhav, who is the standing committee chairman of the cash-rich, Sena-controlled city civic body; Ms. Jadhav, who represents Byculla; their close aides; and other Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) contractors since the early hours.
The raids come close on the heels of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) interrogation and arrest of Maharashtra Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Nawab Malik.
The move assumes significance ahead of the high-stakes BMC election, which is slated to be held in a month and amid ferocious sabre-rattling between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress and the Opposition BJP.
Alleged shell companies
Speaking in New Delhi, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya alleged that Mr. Jadhav and his kin had been involved in several non-transparent financial transactions, including money laundering and parking the BMC’s ‘scam money’ through shell companies to the tune of more than ₹30 crore.
“For instance, ₹15 crore was parked into the Jadhavs’ accounts through a shell company by the name of Pradhan Dealers Pvt. Ltd. by a hawala operator named Uday Shankar Mahavar. Part of this money was sent to the United Arab Emirates. The I-T Department has thoroughly documented the cash trail and we have been following it up as well,” Somaiya, stated adding that he had complained to the ED and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office authorities in this regard. “We are confident that these agencies, too, will be probe the Jadhav family soon.”
Mr. Somaiya accused Mahavar of being an ‘operator’ for the Gandhi family and warned that he would be filing a PIL soon in the High Court regarding the case of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s 19 bungalows, which allegedly involved dubious transactions.
“Of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ scamsters list of the Thackeray-led MVA that I had put out yesterday, two were missing - Yashwant Jadhav and his family, and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar. Rest assured, the guilty shall be probed thoroughly and brought to account,” he said.
The MVA has been accusing the BJP-led Centre of unleashing its agencies and “framing” its leadership ahead of the civic body election.
Poll affidavit probe
Nonetheless, the I-T probe into the dealings of the Jadhav kin are not sudden. In August last, an I-T probe into Ms. Yamini Jadhav’s election affidavit called it “erroneous”, while referring specifically to the ‘dubious’ dealings involved in a ₹1 crore loan taken by her.
Sena leaders Sanjay Raut and Kishori Pednekar slamming the raids as yet another chapter in the ongoing harassment of non-BJP parties by the Centre.
“Municipal elections are due within a month, and this process of raids will begin. These agencies will even raid ordinary staffers of the BMC if they feel like it…they will file false cases and conjure up false evidence,” said Mr. Raut.
Ms. Pednekar, who attempted to visit the Jadhav kin to show solidarity, said the Sena was “like a family” and that she had come to “restrain Shiv Sainiks” who could behave in an untoward manner if they felt their leaders were being wrongly targeted.
‘Is BJP pure?’
“The whole of Maharashtra is seeing the manner in which the BJP is misusing agencies. And this is not just happening in Mumbai or Maharashtra but in West Bengal, in Jharkhand, in Punjab…. this does not mean we will sit quietly. What is the BJP trying to say with all this? That only the Sena, the NCP and the Congress are corrupt and it is ‘pure?,’” she asked.
The Sena, which is fighting a critical battle to re-assert its supremacy over the BMC, has taken an aggressive stance against the BJP – particularly against its more vocal opponents like Mr. Somaiya and Union Minister Narayan Rane.
Earlier this week, a team of team of BMC officials inspected a bungalow owned by Mr. Rane for alleged violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
