Mumbai: A Mumbai court on Friday discharged Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in a money-laundering case linked to the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi. The case stemmed from a 2005–06 contract awarded for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan when Bhujbal was Maharashtra’s Public Works Department minister.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged that Bhujbal and his family members received kickbacks from construction firm K S Chamankar in return for the contract. According to the ED, the construction company had routed funds to firms in which Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and nephew Sameer Bhujbal were directors.
The agency claimed that the original project cost of Rs 13.5 crore was subsequently escalated to nearly Rs 50 crore, and that Bhujbal received kickbacks amounting to Rs 13.5 crore. The ED further alleged that the firm earned profits of around Rs 190 crore from the Maharashtra Sadan project and other PWD works.
On Friday, special PMLA judge Satyanarayan Ramjivan Navandar allowed the discharge applications filed by Bhujbal and the other accused, a lawyer associated with the case said. The ED’s money-laundering probe was based on an FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against Bhujbal and his relatives. Notably, Bhujbal, his son, his nephew and five others had already been discharged in the related ACB case in 2021.
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