Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader EknathKhadse on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers at the agency’s south Mumbai office, according to the summons issued by the agency in connection with the Bhosari (Pune) land money-laundering case. He and his family members are accused of defrauding the state exchequer to the tune of ₹61.25 crores. He was earlier summoned and subsequently questioned by ED in January this year, a few months after he left the BJP and joined NCP. However, as new facts emerged, the agency wanted to interrogate him again. On Wednesday, the agency tweeted that Khadse’s son-in-law GirishChaudhari has been arrested and remanded in ED’s custody up to July 12 as per a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court order.

While establishing the money trail, when ED officials asked Chaudhari about the source of funds for the purchase of the said land, he said that he availed a loan of ₹2 crores from Benchmark Buildcon Private Limited.

However, when ED scrutinized the balance sheet of Benchmark Buildcon Private Limited, it was revealed that the company did not have any operating income in 2014-15, 2015-16 and generated only ₹1.5 lakh in 2016-17 . Further probe revealed that the said company received funds from five companies (Proficient Merchandise Ltd, Abjayoni Trading Pvt Ltd, Adamina Traders, ChemexgoodsPvt Ltd and Pearl Dealers Pvt Ltd) and immediately after receiving the funds, transferred the same to Chaudhari.

These five companies are shell companies. They were used for layering of funds. This clearly shows that the source of the funds for the purchase of the said land is not genuine and the money has been routed through various companies by Chaudhari, the Central agency said. A senior ED officer, on condition of anonymity, said that they would confront and interrogate Khadse and Chaudhari together.