SOMETHING UNTHINKABLE happened in Maharashtra politics on March 22. The Enforcement Directorate provisionally attached 11 residential flats belonging to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd—owned and controlled by Shridhar Patankar, brother-in-law of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray—in the Pushpak Bullion money laundering case. The message was clear: the Thackerays were no longer untouchable. The development assumes significance as the ED had so far restricted its action to Shiv Sena and NCP leaders without venturing anywhere near Maharashtra’s first family and its close relatives.
The ED had recorded a money laundering case against Pushpak Bullion and subsidiaries on March 6, 2017. After demonetisation was announced, Pushpak Bullion is alleged to have sold 258kg of gold and accepted payments in demonetised currency. The ED has already provisionally attached immovable and movable properties of Pushpak Bullion worth 021.46 crore. The Pushpak Group is controlled by chartered accountants Mahesh Patel and Chandrakant Patel, and their family members.
ED investigations further revealed that Mahesh had siphoned off funds from Pushpak Realty in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi, an accommodation entry provider (providing accommodation entry entails breaking up large amounts of money into smaller, less-suspicious amounts). In the garb of a sale, Pushpak Realty is alleged to have transferred Rs20.02 crore to entities controlled by Chaturvedi.
According to the ED, Chaturvedi operates a number of shell companies. And, it is through one of them—Humsafar Dealer Pvt Ltd—that he transferred money, masked as an unsecured loan of Rs30 crore, to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd. “Thus the money siphoned off by Mahesh Patel in connivance with Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate project being developed by the Patankar-controlled Saibaba Grihanirmiti,” the agency said.
Patankar is the youngest brother of Uddhav’s wife, Rashmi. They have a sister—Swati Sardesai, whose son Varun is close to Tourism and Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray and is general secretary of the Aditya-controlled Yuva Sena. However, Patankar has always maintained a safe distance from politics. He keeps a very low profile and has business interests in the real estate sector. Rashmi, Swati and Patankar are known to be very close. Patankar earlier lived in Dombivali, where the siblings grew up. After Rashmi’s marriage to Uddhav and the growth of his own business, Patankar moved to Bandra east, where the Thackerays also live.
On the day the ED provisionally attached the 11 properties, an upset Patankar apparently told Rashmi that he had done nothing wrong and that he had disassociated himself from the said company long ago. Rashmi, who carries immense weight in the Thackeray-Patankar family matters, was furious. She told her brother to stay calm and not to talk to anyone.
That the ED action had hurt the Thackerays became clear on March 25 when Uddhav launched a spirited attack on the BJP and Central agencies on the floor of the state legislature. “You want power, take it,” he said. “I am willing to come anywhere with you, even to jail. But don’t harass relatives, don’t defame them. Did any one of us defame your family and relatives? Your fight is with me, so don’t trouble my relatives and my Shiv Sainiks through investigating agencies. I may not be Krishna of Mahabharat, but you are certainly acting like King Kansa by targeting innocents.”
Uddhav knows that his political heft lies in his surname, but he is also aware that he is not a patch on his father, Bal Thackeray. Nonetheless, he has told senior party leaders that the Shiv Sena will launch a statewide agitation if Patankar or any of the Sena leaders like Transport Minister Anil Parab or MP Sanjay Raut are arrested. On April 5, the ED provisionally attached Raut’s eight properties in Alibaug and a flat in Dadar where he lives in connection with another money laundering case.
The investigating agencies, meanwhile, are casting their net far and wide. Their latest catch is Yashwant Jadhav, Shiv Sena’s standing committee chairman in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. His wife, Yamini, is a Shiv Sena MLA from Byculla in Mumbai. In a raid on Jadhav’s residence, income tax authorities found a diary, which had entries like Rs2 crore (to Matoshree), and wristwatches worth Rs50 lakh. Matoshree means mother in Marathi. It is also the name of the Thackeray residence in Bandra east. Jadhav told IT officials that he had made a donation of Rs2 crore on his mother’s birthday. He, however, has not been able to convince the officials about gifting his mother the expensive watches.
According to a source, the list of Shiv Sena leaders on the radar of investigating agencies include Parab, his close associate Sanjay Kadam; Raut; Industries Minister Subhash Desai and his son Bhushan Desai; Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde and his close associates like Ajay Ashar, a real estate businessman; Bhupal Ramnathkar, Uddhav’s friend; the Jadhavs, and party secretary Milind Narvekar.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), and the Shiv Sena in particular, has decided to hit back at the BJP by targeting its leaders like leader of opposition Pravin Darekar and legislative council member Prasad Lad. “We also have files related to Chandrakant Patil (BJP state president) when he was revenue minister and we will not spare even Devendra Fadnavis,” said a Shiv Sena insider.
As the war between the Shiv Sena and the BJP gets fiercer by the day, the BJP has decided that it does not want to topple the MVA government anymore. The party instead will focus on damaging the image of the government and the Shiv Sena. The BJP wants to create a narrative that the MVA government is thoroughly corrupt, has elements linked to the underworld and Islamic terrorists and is totally inefficient.
The thinking in the BJP is that if it tries to topple the government, the MVA will get people’s sympathy. But if the BJP continues to target them on issues like corruption, the people will favour it in the 2024 assembly elections. Said a BJP leader: “Uddhav Thackeray is the most inefficient chief minister leading a corrupt and disgraced government. We will take this message to the nooks and corners of the state in coming months.”