In a major swoop, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday raided multiple locations in Kolhapur linked to senior NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif.
Mushrif had been on the radar of central agencies for quite some time.
Mushrif is a close aide of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar. A five-time MLA from Kagal, he had been a minister in the erstwhile Democratic Front government and the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
He is the fifth big leader of the MVA to be targeted by central agencies. The others are Anil Deshmukh (NCP), Nawab Malik (NCP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) and Anil Parab (Shiv Sena).
The NCP and its MVA allies -- Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress -- have reacted sharply to the development.
“It is politically motivated. Mushrif is being targeted the way earlier Deshmukh, Malik and Raut had been targeted,” NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said.
Protests erupted in several places in Kagal and other parts of Kolhapur in the wake of the ED action.
“Mushrif is a senior leader, he is a fighter to the core…he has seen several struggles, he will come out of it” Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said.
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