NCP's Eknath Khadse grilled by ED in land grab case

Khadse was summoned to appear in the last week of December, but he had sought time citing health issues

Senior politician and Maharashtra's former revenue minister Eknath Khadse, who recently left BJP to join NCP, was on Friday grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) vis-a-vis an alleged land grab case of Pune.

Khadse (68), a political heavyweight from North Maharashtra, was summoned to appear in the last week of December, but he had sought time citing health issues.

Last month, the ED had gone to Pune to scrutinize evidence and gather documents pertaining to the deal. Subsequently, the ED recorded the statement of the whistle-blower and social activist Anjali Damania in the matter, for which she had moved the court.

Khadse, who was a senior minister in the previous BJP-Shiv Sena government and virtually the No 2, had to resign in wake of the scam in 2016.

Khadse had fallen out with then chief minister and now leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis when he left the BJP, and finally joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

In his complaint to the Bund Garden police station in Pune on May 30, 2016, builder and real estate developer Hemant Gawande had alleged that Khadse misused his power as a minister and purchased land in Bhosari area, owned by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), in the name of his wife and son-in-law at the cost of Rs 3.75 crore, as against the market price of Rs 40 crore.

The state government had initiated a probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) into Khadse. He had also faced a probe by Justice MD Zoting, a retired Bombay High Court judge. Khadse had got a clean chit in both inquiries.