Sharad Pawar questions ED action against Sanjay Raut in meeting with PM Modi
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday termed as 'injustice' the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) action against Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut. Addressing the media after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pawar said that he brought to the notice of the Prime Minister the matter regarding the attachment of assets linked to Raut and his family.
"If a central agency takes a step like this, then they have to take responsibility for it..this action against him because he speaks against the government?" he asked.
Pawar said that the Prime Minister didn't say anything when he raised the matter during the meeting at the latter's office in Parliament. The NCP chief was closeted with Modi at the Prime Minister's Office in Parliament for nearly 20 minutes.
The meeting between Pawar and Modi took place a day after the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth more than Rs 11.15 crore of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's wife and two of his associates in a money-laundering investigation linked to certain land deals.
The meeting also comes on a day when the CBI took custody of former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh. Deshmukh was taken into custody by the CBI team from the Arthur Road Prison in Central Mumbai and placed under arrest in connection with corruption allegations raised against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The NCP is part of the Shiv Sena-led MVA along with Congress. Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray heads the alliance government. Shiv Sena had in 2019 ended its ties with the BJP after the Assembly polls in Maharashtra. The BJP and Sena together had secured a comfortable majority in the Assembly polls. But the Sena quit the BJP-led NDA and joined the ranks with then-rival parties NCP and Congress to form the government. BJP is the single largest party in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
READ MORE: Sanjay Raut in trouble! ED attaches assets linked to Shiv Sena MP in PMLA probe
