26 November,2020 08:30 PM IST | Mumbai | PTI
Vihang Singh Sarnaik arrives at the ED office in Ballard Estate. Pic/Suresh Karkera
A court here on Thursday remanded Amit Chandole, an alleged associate of Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik, in the Enforcement Directorate''s (ED) custody till November 29 in a money laundering case. Chandole was arrested by the ED on late Wednesday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case against a security service provider company and others.
He was produced before special PMLA judge P P Rajvaidya on Thursday who remanded him in ED custody. The central agency sources had said that it was probing Chandole''s alleged suspicious dealings with Sarnaik, Tops Group security providing service, and its promoter Rahul Nanda.
Nanda, as per media reports, had denied wrongdoing. The ED launched searches at ten properties of Sarnaik, Nanda and a few others on November 24 in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane. Tops Group providing security guards to a Maharashtra government organisation during 2014-15 is under the ED''s scanner among other things, as per the sources.
The Shiv Sena had called the raids a "political vendetta" and said the Maharashtra government or its leaders will not surrender to pressure from anyone.
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The ED case was filed after studying a Mumbai Police economic offences wing FIR filed against the promoters of the business group on charges of alleged irregularities in acquisition of some overseas assets in 2009 and the transactions of some trusts based abroad.
ED officials had also questioned the MLA''s elder son Vihang. Sarnaik, 56, represents the Ovala-Maijwada constituency in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and is also a spokesperson for his party.
The legislator was in news when he wrote a letter seeking re-opening of an alleged abetment to suicide case of 2018 in which Republic TV''s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was arrested by the Mumbai Police recently. Goswami is now out on bail.
Sarnaik had also demanded a unanimous resolution in the Maharashtra Assembly for legal action against actor Kangana Ranaut, who, he said, has "maligned" the image of Maharashtra and Mumbai through her tweets.
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