After enduring Income Tax raids on businesses owned by his relatives and aides earlier this month, Deputy Chief Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Thursday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) allegations that he had purchased the Satara-based Jarandeshwar sugar factory through shell companies.
Mr. Pawar said that he has data of around 60-70 such sugar factories being purchased by builders, politicos, big farmers and that he would reveal all in a press conference soon.
“It is not only about the Jarandeshwar factory, but I have all the records of other factories which are being sold and purchased in the State and I will reveal this in a detailed press conference tomorrow in Pune. The number of such factories are 60-70… I will give information about how many factories were sold in the State from the beginning, at what price, and in whose tenure,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
Lashing out at the opposition’s attempts to throw muck at him, Mr. Pawar said he had been active in Maharashtra’s politics since 1990 and that the State’s public knew very well that he was not dishonest.
“The whole of Maharashtra knows me and that I am not dishonest and that I will never lie... There is no dishonesty in our blood,” said Mr. Pawar, who is also Pune’s Guardian Minister.
At the time of the I-T raids, Mr. Pawar had said he felt aggrieved that authorities were raiding the homes of his sisters in Pune and Kolhapur, while promising that he would speak out in detail once the authorities had departed.
Somaiya’s visit
Earlier on Wednesday, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya showed up outside the Enforcement Directorate’s zonal office in south Mumbai to furnish more information regarding alleged financial wrongdoings in businesses linked to Mr. Pawar.
NCP activists staged a protest against him and the BJP, demanding a status report on complaints filed against four BJP leaders.
