72 hrs later, I-T men leave Shiv Sena leader Yashwant Jadhav's home

CRPF personnel stand outside Bilakhadi Chambers as I-T officials search Yashwant Jadhav’s home, in Mazagaon, on February 25. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Officials of the Income Tax department left Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav's home in Mazagaon after 72 hours, on Monday morning, following which he returned to work at the BMC headquarters.

I-T officials, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, reached his Mazagaon residence at Bilakhadi Chambers early Friday morning. The department searched the houses and offices of Yashwant's aides in the city. Yashwant, who is also the chairman of BMC's standing committee, returned to work in the afternoon, but kept mum about the search.

Local Sena workers gathered around his house for all the three days. Most parts of Mazagaon remained closed on Friday and Mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the spot on the same day, while other Sena leaders refrained from talking about the I-T search.

The searches are linked to alleged discrepancies in the election affidavit of his wife Yamini Jadhav, an MLA, filed before the 2019 Assembly election. BJP leaders have been alleging that a Kolkata-based company was a conduit for laundering money to the UAE.