Chhagan Bhujbal, Once Maharashtra's No. 2 Leader, Arrested In Corruption Case

Mumbai: Chhagan Bhujbal, former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader, will be produced before a Mumbai court this morning. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate after more than 10 hours of questioning late on Monday night in a case of alleged money laundering connected to what is called the Maharashtra Sadan scam.

Mr Bhujbal is being investigated for alleged corruption in contracts awarded for the Maharashtra Sadan or state government guest house in Delhi and other government projects when he was the Public Works Department or PWD minister in the NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra.

The Enforcement Directorate or ED claims that part of the money allegedly received as kickbacks was parked abroad and routed into India through various shell companies located across the country.

Mr Bhujbal and his Nationalist Congress Party or NCP have denied any wrongdoing and accuse the state's present BJP-led government of revenge politics.

"Party chief Sharad Pawar and all other members stand by Mr Bhujbal in this hour of crisis. We are here in full strength to support him," said  NCP spokesperson Jitendra Ahwad, alleging that Chhagan Bhujbal is being "victimised."

Mr Bhujbal had told NDTV two weeks ago that the Devendra Fadnavis government wouldn't dare arrest him. The move has surprised many in the party too; the cadre expecting chief Sharad Pawar would have used his good relations with the BJP.

Chhagan Bhujbal, a powerful local politician who has been a member of the Shiv Sena and the Congress before he became a key leader of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, had arrived smiling at the ED office on Monday morning, waving to his many supporters gathered at the court.

ED officials said they had to arrest the 68-year-old former minister as he did not cooperate with investigators questioning him. It had arrested his nephew and former lawmaker Sameer Bhujbal on February 1 and have questioned his son, Pankaj.

The agency has filed two cases of alleged money laundering against Mr Bhujbal and his son and nephew, one of them related to a land grab case and the other to the Maharashra Sadan case, in which the Bhujbals and 14 others have been charged-sheeted by the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The new Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi was built at a cost of Rs 150 crore in 2013 when Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra.