Mumbai cops say enquiry initiated against Thackeray for disproportionate assets

The Mumbai Police on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that they have initiated a preliminary enquiry against former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his kin on a complaint about alleged disproportionate assetsPublic Prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai informed this to the HC after a division bench of Justices Dheeraj Thakur and Valmiki Menezes reserved its order on a public interest litigation seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI and the Enforcement Directorate ED against the Thackerays for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of incomeThe Thackerays sought dismissal of the PIL on the ground that it was filed on assumptions and without any factual foundationThe petition filed by behaviour and soft skill consultant and city resident Gauri Bhide sought a direction to the CBI and the ED to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation against Thackeray and his familyAlso Read Bombay HC reserves order on PIL seeking probe against Uddhav Thackeray kin for alleged disproportionate assetsThe bench heard the matter briefly in the morning session and closed it for ordersHowever in the afternoon session Pai mentioned the matter once again to inform the court of the state governments standThe Mumbai Polices Economic Offences Wing EOW has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the allegations Pai told the courtUddhav Thackerays counsel Aspi Chinoy objected to this and said it was an abuse of the process of lawBhide before filing the petition had sent a letter to the Mumbai police commissioner on her allegationsHowever on Thursday Bhide told the court that she has not been informed about any such enquiry initiated by the policeMy request is that the central agencies should be directed to conduct a probe Bhide told the courtSenior counsels Chinoy and Ashok Mundargi appearing for Uddhav Thackeray his wife Rashmi Thackeray and son Aaditya Thackeray had argued the PIL was filed on assumptions and without any factual foundationThe petition is absolutely bereft of any material and is filed purely on assumptions The petitioner has an alternate remedy of filing private complaint before a magistrates court seeking police probe Chinoy arguedHe said Uddhav Thackeray is not in power anymore and hence it cannot be alleged he or his family would influence any probeMundargi argued Bhide should have first filed a complaint with the police or a private complaintThe high courts jurisdiction comes only when the alternate remedies have been availed of and no relief has been granted Mundargi said adding the PIL has levelled allegations based on assumptions instead of factsBhide whose family owned a printing press in Mumbais Dadar area in her PIL said being a sincere and vigilant citizen she wanted to help the Government of India in unearthing some more hidden unaccounted wealth disproportionate to income and also unearth laundered moneyThe plea stated Bhide was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modis fight against corruption and claimed she has evidence to show the Thackeray family accumulated properties and assets illegallyIt further alleged that Uddhav Thackeray and his family never disclosed any particular service profession and business as their official source of incomeYet we find they have huge properties in a metro city like Mumbai and in Raigad district which may run into crores the plea saidIt also referred to raids conducted by the CBI and the ED on people who are very very close to the Thackeray family and claimed it is crystal clear the huge undisclosed properties cash and other wealth with those persons have a close nexus to the ThackeraysDuring the COVID19 pandemic lockdown when the entire print media was facing heavy losses Thackerays company Prabodhan Prakashan Pvt Ltd showed a brilliant performance of Rs 42 crore turnover and Rs 115 crore profit the petition further claimedDuring this period Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister and his son Aaditya Thackeray was a cabinet minister the plea saidIt seems it is a clear case of turning the black money into white one the PIL allegedThe Uddhav Thackerayled Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed in June this year after a revolt in his partyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever