MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab for nearly eight hours here on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering case registered against former state minister Anil Deshmukh and others, an official said.
The ED had on Saturday issued a summons for the second time to Parab, 56, who also holds the parliamentary affairs portfolio in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, asking him to appear before the central agency.
Accordingly, the Sena minister reached the ED office in the Ballard Estate area of south Mumbai around 11 am and was allowed to go at about 7 pm, the official said. After coming out of the ED office, Parab told reporters he had given answers to all questions asked by officials of the financial investigation agency.
“I got two summons from ED. As a law-abiding citizen, I went to the ED office. I have no idea in connection to what case they called me. I have not done anything wrong, so I am not afraid of any probe. I will face the inquiry,” the minister said.
The three-term Shiv Sena MLA was first summoned by the agency on August 31, but he declined to appear citing official engagements, and had sought 14 days to appear before the agency. Parab's close aide, the Regional Transport Officer Bajrang Kharmate was also summoned in the same case in September. The suspended Mumbai cop Sachin Waze had told the investigative agency that Parab was interfering in police transfers in Mumbai and Thane. Besides, Waze also alleged that Parab had asked him to extort the Rs 50 crore from the BMC contractors.
Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP Bhavan Gawli’s close aid Sameed Khan was arrested by ED in connection with a money laundering case. Sameed Khan is the director of Mahila Utkarsh Trust which turned into a company.
Another Shiv Sena former MP Anand Adsule, who is also facing the ED inquiry, was hospitalised after chest pain.
Parab was summoned in the money laundering probe against former home minister Deshmukh after certain "disclosures" were made by other accused and those involved in the case, officials have said.
The summons pertains to the criminal investigation being carried out by the ED in the alleged Rs 100-crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maharashtra police establishment that led to Deshmukh's resignation from the state cabinet in April.
The ED case against Deshmukh, an NCP leader, and others came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked him in a corruption case related to allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribe levelled by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
Deshmukh, who has skipped the ED summons at least five times till now and moved court against the agency, has rejected all allegations against him.
The NCP politician has said Singh made the allegations against him after he was removed from the post of Mumbai police commissioner in March.
Former police officer Sachin Waze, arrested by the NIA in the case of recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in Mumbai, has also levelled certain allegations against Parab.
Waze had earlier alleged in a letter, which he sought to submit before a court, that in January 2021, Parab asked him to carry out an inquiry against "fraudulent" contractors listed in the Mumbai civic body and "collect" at least Rs 2 crore from about 50 such contractors.
Parab had then rejected Waze's claims and said he was ready to face any probe into the allegations.