ED raids: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray seen alongside Pushpak Bullion promoter

A picture being circulated on social media purportedly shows Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray walking alongside Chandrakant Patel, who is one of the promoters of Pushpak Bullion.

The Pushpak group was booked by the ED under the PMLA in March 2017 in a criminal case linked to demonetisation of two high value currencies -- Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 -- by the Union government the year before.

BJP’s Adv. Vivekanand Gupta while posting the picture on Twitter said, "@OfficeofUT wid Chandrakant Patel of Pushpak Bullion,his properties attached @dir_ed in Money Laundering.Yesterday property of Patankar bro-in- law of Uddhav T attached in same case, belonging to Pushpak Bullion. Read ED press note below. Uddhav Saheb yeh rishta kya kehlata hai"

In a major development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday that it has attached immovable properties worth around Rs 6.45 core belonging to Pushpak Group's entity, Pushpak Bullion, in Thane.

These include 11 flats in the Neelambari project in Thane, belonging to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt Ltd, which is owned and controlled by Shridhar Madhav Patankar.

Properties worth Rs 21.46 crore of the promoters of Pushpak Bullion like Mahesh Patel, Chandrakant Patel, their family members and companies "controlled" by them were attached earlier, it said.

Probe found Mahesh Patel had "siphoned off and layered" funds of Pushpak group concern called Pushpak Realty in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi, an accommodation entry provider or a person who provides fake business entries, the ED claimed.

Pushpak Realty Developer, in the "garb" of sale, transferred funds to the tune of Rs 20.02 crore to the entities controlled by Nandkishore Chaturvedi after layering it through various connected/unconnected entities, it alleged.

"Chaturvedi who operates a number of shell companies further transferred the money through his shell company Humsafar Dealer Private Limited in the garb of extending unsecured loans in excess of Rs 30 Crore to M/s Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiri Pvt. Ltd.

"Thus, the money siphoned off by Mahesh Patel in connivance with Nandkishore Chaturvedi was parked in the real estate projects by Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd," the ED alleged.