Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids at seven locations in Pune and Mumbai linked to Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab after the agency filed a case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The raids were carried out at Parab's official as well as a private residence. In September 2021, Parab appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai for questioning in connection with the bribery and money laundering case against the former home minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh. In its charge-sheet against Deshmukh's two arrested aides, the ED last year said dismissed assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, in his statement, claimed Parab allegedly received crores of rupees through Nagpur's deputy regional transport officer Bajrang Kharmate as a bribe for transfers of 10 police officers in Mumbai. The ED earlier questioned Kharmate for seven-and-a-half hours. Kharmate is believed to be a close aide to Parab. His name surfaced in the case following statements of some witnesses in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act case against Deshmukh. On April 8 this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Bombay High Court stated that Deshmukh was the "mastermind" behind the money laundering case and that he had misused his official position to amass wealth. (ANI)
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