Income Tax Dept attaches Rs 1,000 crore assets linked to Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar

New Delhi, November 2

The Income Tax Department has issued provisional attachment orders to seize assets worth more than Rs 1,000 crore allegedly linked to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar after raids at several locations, sources said today.

Properties include…

• Rs600 cr Jarandeshwar sugar factory in Satara
• Rs250 cr resort called Nilaya in Goa
• Rs25 cr office of Parth Pawar at Nirmal House in south Mumbai
• Rs20 cr flat in south Delhi
• Rs500 cr land parcels in more than two dozen locations across Maharashtra

They said following extensive nationwide searches on Pawar’s relatives last month, the department had sent provisional orders to attach their properties in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Goa and more than two dozen land parcels across Maharashtra.

Last month, the I-T department had searched offices and residences of the promoters of Dynamix and DB Realty. Raids were also conducted at sugar mills funded by Dynamix and DB Realty and Pawar’s sisters’ houses and companies.

The minister had called the raids “politically motivated”.

Another source in the department confirmed that benami properties division of the organisation has issued the provisional attachment orders under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, regarding various properties linked to the NCP leader.

Pawar is the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

The Deputy CM’s relatives have been given 90 days to prove these properties legitimately belong to them and not purchased with illicit money and that during the pendency of the probe, they cannot sell these properties, the source said.

Notably, the ED is also probing the Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sugar Karkhana in Satara controlled by Pawar’s family in an alleged Rs 750-crore loan scam case. — TNS