After businesses linked to senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s relatives were raided by Income Tax authorities, officials also raided the office premises of Mr. Pawar’s son, Parth, in Mumbai’s Nariman area.
According to sources, Parth Pawar’s office was raided by the I-T authorities on Thursday evening as part of marathon raids that went for more than 12 hours from the morning.
Mr. Parth Pawar unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the Maval constituency, where he lost heavily to the Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne.
Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar hit out at the I-T searches, remarking that the action reeked of “excessive use of power” and said that they were perhaps a reaction to his strong comments on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh, which he had likened to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Speaking in Baramati, the NCP chief said: “The manner in which farmers were killed at Lakhimpur Kheri evoked strong condemnations from all. I spoke about it and likened the incident to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It certainly has angered those in power and the ongoing developments [I-T raids] may have been a result of this.”
The NCP chief, who had initially refrained from commenting, stating that the I-T’s searches were still on, finally lashed out by calling them an “excessive use of power.”
