Mumbai, Jan 18 (IANS) A special court on Thursday sent Yuva Sena leader Suraj Chavan to Enforcement Directorate custody till January 22 in connection with a money-laundering case arising out of an alleged ‘khichdi scam’ during the Covid-19 pandemic in Mumbai.
Chavan, a close confidante of Shiv Sena-UBT MLA Aaditya Thackeray, was arrested around midnight and produced before a special PMLA Court for alleged money-laundering and other charges this afternoon.
With this, the ED has reached close to Thackeray Jr., who is the President of Yuva Sena, while Chavan is the Secretary, and close to the Thackeray clan.
The Shiv Sena-UBT slammed the arrest of Chavan.
In a strong reaction, Thackeray Jr. said he was “proud of such patriots who don’t bow down to shameless dictatorships and their servile agencies, and for always standing up to truth, democracy, free speech and the Constitution”.
“Proud to be a colleague of such patriots… He (Chavan) refused to be bought out by the regime and thereby he is being harassed. We will fight these dark days for democracy and win. The world is watching the dictatorial regime in our state,” he said on X.
Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut termed the arrest as a vendetta and warned that the people of the state will give a fitting reply to the Bharatiya Janata Party for misusing central agencies against political opponents.
Congress General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala flayed the development terming it as targeting of the Opposition parties by the central probe agencies like the ED-CBI and others.
“Is any Bharatiya Janata Party leader arrested in any case by the ED so far? This is just an attempt to harass and oppress the Opposition parties,” he said in Nagpur.
BJP ex-MP Kirit Somaiya, who exposed the alleged scam last year, welcomed Chavan’s arrest in the ‘khichdi scam’ worth around Rs 6.7 crore, with the food meant to be served to stranded migrants.
Among other things, Chavan is accused of influencing BMC officials to award contracts to certain contractors who were close to the then ruling Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
After the Mumbai Police’s EOW filed a case in September 2023, the ED entered the probe for a suspected money-laundering angle to the case.
The BMC had awarded contracts for ‘khichdi’ intended to be served to migrant workers who were stranded in Mumbai during the strict lockdown, and Chavan allegedly influenced civic officials to divert the lucrative contracts to caterers who did not fulfill the requisite criteria, giving only half the quantity of specified 250 gms ‘khichdi’ packets, and other irregularities.
The case has other alleged players like Raut’s close aide Sujit Parkar, Sunil Kadam alias Bala, Rajeev Salunkhe of Sahyadri Refreshments, Force One Multi-Services, Sneha Caterers, several known and unknown BMC officials who are linked in the scam.
