Maharashtra: Shiv Sena leader Suraj Chavan, a close aide of Aaditya Thackeray, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Khichdi Covid scam case.
The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police had registered a case against a total of seven people in the Rs 6.7 crore scam. Later, based on an FIR, ED initiated action under the PMLA act.
In October last year, ED raided several locations related to those named in the alleged scam.
EOW of Mumbai Police received many important information during the investigation of the alleged Khichdi scam case.
Sources said that some money has been received in the bank accounts of Suraj Chavan and Amol Kirtikar which is a suspicious transaction and it seems to be related to this scam.
The investigation so far revealed that there are suspicious transactions of Rs 52 lakh in Kirtikar's account and Rs 37 lakh in Suraj Chavan's account.
Suraj Chavan is considered a close aide of Aditya Thackeray while Amol Kirtikar is the son of MP Gajanan Kirtikar.
Gajanan Kirtikar is with the Eknath Shinde camp while his son Amol Kirtikar is in Uddhav Thackeray's group.
EOW suspects that both of them had used their political identity to help the contractor in getting the tender for Khichdi. The contractor was not eligible for this tender, yet he was awarded it.
Suraj Chavan, who is said to be a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray was questioned by the EOW in July this year, he said.
In September, Amol Kirtikar had appeared before the EOW officials to record his statement.
According to the EOW, Kirtikar allegedly received Rs 52 lakh, while Chavan got Rs 37 lakh from a firm that was given a contract to distribute khichdi to migrant labourers during the pandemic.
Kirtikar is the son of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha MP Gajanan Kirtikar, who is part of the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
With inputs from PTI
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