The ED, which has been investigating the scam, had, last week, summoned Bhujbal on Monday. Bhujbal reached the ED office amidst tight security at 11.30 am. Speaking to reporters before entering the ED office, he said: "It is political vendetta. Truth shall prevail. I will cooperate with the ED."
After a marathon questioning for 11 hours, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) late on Monday night arrested senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, Chhagan Bhujbal, for alleged involved in the multi-crore Maharashtra Sadan scam.
According to sources, Bhujbal has been arrested under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED, which has been investigating the scam, had, last week, summoned Bhujbal on Monday. Bhujbal reached the ED office amidst tight security at 11.30 am. Speaking to reporters before entering the ED office, he said: "It is political vendetta. Truth shall prevail. I will cooperate with the ED."
According to ED sources, Bhujbal, along with his son Pankaj and nephew Sameer, allegedly played an important role in laundering huge amount of money that resulted in the loss of about Rs 870 crore to the state exchequer.
The ED has also said that while going through the account books of some of the firms controlled by the Bhujbal family, officials came across various fictitious transactions, which, they believe, is nothing but kickbacks received by the family for awarding various contracts while Bhujbal was the PWD minister.
A large number of party workers gathered outside the ED office and raised slogans even as prohibitory orders were put in place.
As the party workers and a huge contingent of media persons waited through the whole day outside the ED office, news trickled late in the night about the arrest.
According to sources, Bhujbal will be produced before the special PMLA court on Tuesday morning after a medical check-up.
The ED had registered a PMLA case involving the Bhujbals and some of their associates. It has already arrested the ex-minister's nephew, Samir, on February 1, 2016, in the case.
On June 17, 2015, the agency has filed two FIRs against the Bhujbals and others under the provisions of PMLA, based on Mumbai police FIRs, as it probes the Delhi-based Maharashtra Sadan construction scam and the Kalina land-grabbing case.
It had ordered the attachment of three properties with an estimated worth of over Rs 280 crore in the case.
ED had twice searched nine premises, including properties and offices belonging to the senior Bhujbal, Pankaj, Samir and a few others.
The state Anti-Corruption Bureau has already filed a charge sheet against Chhagan Bhujbal, Pankaj, Sameer and 14 others in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case.
The new Maharashtra Sadan was built at the cost of Rs 100 crore when Congress-NCP coalition was in power in Maharashtra.
Samir is currently lodged in the Arthur Road jail. The ED had also questioned Bhujbal's son Pankaj in the same case.
Before Bhujbal's arrival, at least 30 NCP workers were briefly taken into preventive custody outside the ED office here. Police sources said that around 125 police personnel headed by DCP Zone-I, Manoj Kumar Sharma were present at the spot even as roads leading to the office were barricaded on both sides.
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