Maharashtra Deputy CM’s office says I-T has sent letter, but no notice of any seizure of assets linked to Pawar
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Pune: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Wednesday vehemently denied no notice has been sent to him by the Income Tax department regarding seizure of any properties registered in his name. His statement comes a day after the Income Tax department provisionally attached assets allegedly linked to the NCP leader.
The senior NCP leader’s lawyer Prashant Patil, while stating that the I-T had sent a letter seeking clarification on certain issues, said that media reports on the alleged seizure of the properties linked to Ajit Pawar had “no basis in fact”.
“While a clarification has been sought from the Income Tax Department on some issues, the I-T’s letter will be answered in an appropriate manner and proper action will be taken through administrative and legal means,” Advocate Patil said, adding that no property related to Pawar had been seized nor a notice had been issued by the I-T department in this regard.
In a clarification issued by the Deputy Chief Minister’s office on Wednesday alleged that reports appearing in a section of the media (pertaining to the attachment of assets) were ‘planted’ in the media and were “baseless, inconsistent with facts and motivated by slander.”
Also Read: IT Dept attaches properties worth Rs. 1,000 cr allegedly linked to Ajit Pawar
“Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has nothing to do with the action of the Income Tax Department…We appeal to the media to check their facts before reporting any news and not fall prey to any propaganda,” read the clarification issued by Pawar’s office.
On Tuesday, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who has been targeting Pawar and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government leaders over alleged financial irregularities, had tweeted saying that among the assets provisionally attached by the I-T department were the Satara-based Jarandeshwar sugar factory (estimated at Rs. 600 crores, a South Delhi flat (worth Rs. 20 crores), the Nirmal office of Parth Pawar (Ajit Pawar’s son), estimated at Rs. 25 crore and a Goa resort valued at Rs. 250 crores. Sources had said that the value of the attached properties exceeded more than Rs. 1,000 crores.
The NCP has claimed that Pawar had “no links” whatsoever with the properties allegedly attached by the I-T department, calling it a ploy “to defame him”.
NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said that the properties attached by the I-T belonged to someone else and not Pawar.
Last month, teams of I-T authorities had raided businesses including sugar factories and searched the homes of Ajit Pawar’s sisters in Kolhapur and Pune, as well as the Mumbai office of his son Parth Pawar.
At the time of the raids, Pawar had said that he felt aggrieved that authorities were raiding the homes of his sisters in Pune and Kolhapur while stressing that all firms and entities linked to him had always paid their taxes regularly.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, too, had reacted strongly to the raids, remarking that the action reeked of “excessive use of power” and said that the I-T raids were perhaps a reaction to his strong comments on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh, which he had likened to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
