05 January,2024 01:22 PM IST | Pune | mid-day online correspondent
ED logo. File Pic
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday searched premises of Baramati Agro, a company owned by MLA Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, and linked entities as part of a money laundering probe in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, official sources said, reported the PTI.
At least six locations in Baramati, Pune, Aurangabad and Amravati in Maharashtra are being searched, they said, according to the PTI.
The office of Baramati Agro in Baramati town is also being covered.
The money laundering case stems from an August, 2019 FIR of the Mumbai Police Economic Offences (EOW) wing.
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The police complaint came after the Bombay High Court issued an order on August 22 that year to investigate the allegations of selling sugar factories in the Maharashtra cooperative sector through alleged fraudulent means and also that they were sold at throw away prices, the news agency reported.
Meanwhile, ED officers were on Friday assaulted and their vehicles were damaged allegedly by supporters of TMC leader Sheikh Sajahan when they tried to raid his residence in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district in connection with their probe into the ration distribution scam, according to the PTI.
The ED officers are conducting raids at 15 places in the state during the day and Sajahan's house is one of them, an officer said.
Sajahan is considered to be a close aide of state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick who was arrested in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.
A large number of TMC loyalists first gheraoed the ED officials and the central forces personnel who accompanied them when they reached Sheikh's residence in Sandeshkhali area in the morning and demonstrated before assaulting them and forcing them to leave the area, the officer said.
The ED officers left their damaged vehicles and took autorickshaws and two-wheelers to reach a safe place out of Sandeskhali, he said.
At least two of the ED officers suffered serious injuries and had to be taken to a hospital, he said.
"This kind of attack is unprecedented. Our officers had to flee the area to save themselves from the attack. Vehicles of us and those of the central forces were damaged. Personnel of the central forces were also assaulted," the ED officer told PTI.
(with PTI inputs)
