MUMBAI: The ED is likely to file a prosecution complaint (chargesheet) in the Eknath Khadse case before a special court next week. It had registered the money laundering case in 2019 and on July 7, arrested Khadse’s son-in-law Girish Chaudhari. He is in judicial custody.
ED sources said they have not attached the MIDC plot at Bhosari in Pune district as it belonged to government and Khadse’s relatives had purchased it fraudulently after manipulating records. ED has alleged a 3-acre land was acquired by MIDC in 1968 from one Rasul Akbar Ukani. In 2010, mutation entry for the land was made in the name of MIDC in the revenue record. But no compensation was paid to Ukani, who died in 1981. In 2016, ready reckoner value of the land was about Rs 23 crore. “Eknath Khadse, due to his official position as the state revenue minister, knew this fact and planned the conspiracy with Mandakini and Girish Chaudhari to fraudulently purchase the land from the heirs of Ukani in the names of Mandakini and Chaudhari for Rs 3.75 crore and to avail the higher compensation at ready reckoner value,” an ED press release said.
But the land could not be transferred in Chaudhari and Mandakini’s names due to mutation entry in revenue records. Khadse, his wife and Chaudhari received Rs 5.5 crore in cash from unknown sources and third parties, ED said. “This fund was placed, routed and layered through bank accounts of various shell companies and bank accounts of Khadse by creating complex web of transactions and finally integrated (sic) the said funds of Rs 5.50 crore in the bank accounts of the Girish Chaudhari and Mandakini Khadse in guise of loan,” the release said.
