The Earnings Tax (I-T) Division has cleared properties valued at over ₹1,000 crore that have been seized in 2021 from Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his household. This transfer follows the dismissal of allegations by the Prevention of Benami Property Transactions Appellate Tribunal, which had claimed that Pawar and his household have been the homeowners of benami properties, The Instances of India reported.
Ajit Pawar, a Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) chief who beforehand confronted investigations by the Earnings Tax Division and Enforcement Directorate (ED), broke away from his uncle Sharad Pawar’s social gathering final 12 months to hitch the federal government as deputy chief minister. He was once more sworn in once more as Deputy CM within the BJP-led Maharashtra authorities on Thursday.
Chatting with the media in regards to the reduction granted by the IT Appellate Tribunal, Ajit Pawar stated, “When did I be a part of the BJP? It has been round 1.5 years. It isn’t at all times mandatory to simply accept allegations blindly. Everybody has the best to enchantment.”
Three years in the past, the Earnings Tax Division had hooked up property valued at ₹1,000 crore, alleging benami possession, and likewise investigated Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill, which the ED had beforehand hooked up in reference to the MSCB rip-off and a cash laundering case.
In its ruling, the Earnings Tax Appellate Tribunal dismissed the allegations in opposition to Ajit Pawar and others, granting him a clear chit within the Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill case.
What are the allegations in opposition to Ajit Pawar?
A Mumbai-based firm acquired Jarandeshwar Sahakari Sugar Karkhana (SSK) by an MSCB public sale and later leased it on a long-term foundation to a agency linked to the Ajit Pawar household. The Earnings Tax (I-T) Appellate Tribunal, ruling on the mill’s possession, stated that no inference might be drawn relating to Ajit Pawar’s involvement with out proof of his direct fund transfers for buying the alleged benami property.
In 2022, the I-T adjudicating authority ordered the discharge of Jarandeshwar SSK and three different properties hooked up beneath the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Modification Act, 2016. Nonetheless, the case was later referred to the appellate tribunal. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued to connect the mill beneath the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act, a call upheld by the adjudicating authority.
Ajit Pawar’s authorized staff, citing a latest Supreme Court docket ruling, argued that properties bought earlier than the 2016 modification couldn’t be hooked up retroactively, because the Act solely applies prospectively.
Allegations surrounding the mill claimed that the Maharashtra State Cooperative Financial institution auctioned Jarandeshwar SSK in 2010 at a considerably lowered worth whereas Ajit Pawar was on the MSCB board, The TOI report stated.
Guru Commodity Providers Pvt Ltd acquired the mill, reportedly with partial funding from Glowing Soil Pvt Ltd, an organization linked to Ajit Pawar and his spouse, Sunetra. Critics alleged that Guru Commodity Providers acted as a proxy proprietor, with management successfully residing with Pawar’s Glowing Soil.
In 2021, I-T officers performed searches at practically 70 places throughout Mumbai, Pune, Baramati, Goa, and Jaipur, uncovering alleged benami and unaccounted transactions price ₹183 crore. Subsequently, properties valued at over ₹1,000 crore, reportedly linked to Ajit Pawar’s household and associates, have been hooked up. These property included a flat in Delhi, a resort in Goa, 27 land parcels in Maharashtra, an workplace at Nariman Level in Mumbai owned by Parth Pawar, and Jarandeshwar SSK. Most of those properties have been acquired earlier than the 2016 modification.
