ED issues fresh summons to Shiv Sena MP Gawali to appear next week


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 20-11-2021 19:16 IST | Created: 20-11-2021 19:16 IST
ED issues fresh summons to Shiv Sena MP Gawali to appear next week
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Gawali to appear before it on November 24 for questioning in a money laundering case here, officials said on Saturday.

She has been asked to appear before the investigating officer of the case at the ED office in the Ballard Estate area, they said.

This is the third time that the agency has asked Gawali, 48, to depose before it.

Gawali, who is the Lok Sabha member from the Yavatmal-Washim constituency in Maharashtra, was twice summoned by the agency to appear before it, but she sought adjournment and a new date, first citing work commitments and then on health grounds.

The agency in September had arrested her aide Saeed Khan in this criminal case filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED, while taking the custody of Saeed Khan, claimed before a special PMLA court that Bhavana Gawali criminally conspired to convert a trust into a private company through Khan by ''forgery and fraud'' for layering of funds of around Rs 18 crore. It is understood that the agency wants to question Bhavana Gawali about her links with Saeed Khan and the trust identified as 'Mahila Utkarsha Pratishthan', and related transactions.

Bhavana Gawali's advocate earlier told reporters that she herself has been a complainant in this case and has filed a police complaint in which a chargesheet has also been filed.

The ED had told the court that its investigation suggested that misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 18.18 crore and theft of Rs 7 crore (cash) have been layered.

The agency said the trust filed for conversion into a Section 8 company by alleged fraudulent forgery of signatures of the management and documents from public institutions. Total assets of Rs 69 crore in the book value (of the trust) were transferred to the newly formed Section 8 company limited, the agency told the court. The Companies Act defines a Section 8 company as one whose objective is to promote fields of arts, commerce, science, research, education, sports, charity, social welfare, religion, environment protection, or other similar objectives.

The directors of this company, according to the ED, are Saeed Khan and the Sena MP's mother Shalinitai Gawali.

Bhavana Gawali along with the two is stated to be a member of this company.

''It is stated that Bhavana Gawali, through her aide Saeed Khan, Shergul Khan and his accomplices have criminally conspired to convert the trust 'Mahila Utkarsha Pratishthan' into a Section 8 company through forgery and fraud for the purpose of layering the trust fund,'' the ED had said. Initial probe shows that there is a huge cash deposit and the withdrawal of bigger amounts from the account of the trust maintained at the Risod Urban Cooperative Society. Then branch manager of the Risod Urban Cooperative Society in his statement stated that the society was not entitled to receive a cash deposit of more than Rs 3 lakh.

However, there are multiple cash deposits of much bigger amounts followed by the withdrawal of the same amount on the same day, the agency said. He (the manager) also stated that these transactions were merely book entries and no physical cash was moved. This was all done on specific instructions of Bhavana Gawali, the ED claimed.

Thus, it has come to light that the complaints alleging misappropriation of funds of Rs 18.18 crore and theft of Rs 7 crore (cash) are layered, the probe agency said.

The ED counsel had claimed that Saeed Khan played an active role in forging documents and creating companies.

His lawyer opposed the ED argument, and said, ''Let them (ED) show if any money has come to my account...there is nothing against me ....I am targeted because I am affiliated to a state party.'' The ED case is based on an FIR registered by Risod police station in Washim district for cheating and criminal breach of trust.

The agency had earlier conducted searches in this case at multiple premises in Yavatmal, Washim and Mumbai.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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