The Directorate of Enforcement on Monday attached assets including 90 acres of erstwhile Ram Ganesh Gadkari SSK held in the name of M/s Takshshila Securities Pvt. Ltd. and two pieces of non–agricultural land admeasuring 4.6 acres belonging to Prajakt Tanpure under the PMLA, 2002.
Mr. Tanpure, a Minister of State in the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, is the third from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) facing the action from the ED after Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik.
Mr. Tanpure was earlier in December 2021 questioned for seven hours by the ED officials after which he said he had answered all the questions satisfactorily.
Last week, following the arrest of Mr. Malik by the ED, a local Sena corporator Yashawant Jadhav’s house was raided by Income Tax authorities.
Mr. Jadhav’s wife is Sena MLA while he is the chairman of the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
In the case of Mr. Tanpure, the ED had initiated the PMLA investigation based on the FIR dated August 26, 2019, registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Mumbai police.
The FIR was lodged in pursuance to the order dated August 22, 2019 of the Bombay High Court on the allegations that the cooperative sugar factories known as Sahkari Sakhar Karkhana (SSKs) were fraudulently sold by the then officials and directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) at throw away prices to related entities without following due procedure.
The EOW, Mumbai police, has filed a closure report in the competent court, which is pending.
According to the ED, investigation conducted under the PMLA revealed that the MSCB undertook auction of the M/s Ram Ganesh Gadkari SSK in 2007 at an undervalued price and without following due process.
The said SSK was sold to M/s. Prasad Sugar and Allied Agro Products Ltd., a firm of Mr. Tanpure (son of Mr. Prasad Tanpure) for a mere ₹12.95 crore against the reserve price of ₹26.32 crore.
Investigation also revealed that though M/s. Prasad Sugar was the sole bidder, to project the process as competitive, the signature of the ‘second bidder’ was taken by the MSCB officials on the bid documents.
This ‘second bidder’ did not deposit the required EMD amount also and was found to be a proxy of M/s. Prasad Sugar.
Though the auction was conducted in 2007, M/s. Prasad Sugar completed payment of sale amount only in 2010 against the statutory condition of completing payment within 52 days (maximum).
M/s. Prasad Sugar is a family held entity of Mr. Prasad Tanpure, who was one of the prominent and influential members of the Board of Directors of the MSCB between August 2004 to March 2010.
