Mumbai (The Hindu): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday issued summons to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s son Pankaj in connection with the money laundering case that the agency has been investigating since last year.

Earlier this week, the ED arrested Mr. Bhujbal’s nephew, Sameer, in connection with the case, in which the Bhujbal family is alleged to have received crores of rupees as kickbacks in exchange for awarding government contracts to specific contractors. This money, it has been alleged, was then laundered after channelising it through a series of companies.

“We have issued a summons to Pankaj on Saturday, asking him to present himself before us for inquiries,” said an official.

The ED has also taken both Mr. Sameer and Mr. Pankaj’s passports into its custody, the officer added. The cousins are partners in several firms owned by the family, including Devisha Infrastructure, through which they bought a 25 acre plot of land in Navi Mumbai, announced a residential project there and collected around Rs 44 crore from 2,300 people. The project, however, never took off. The land was attached by the ED last year.

On Saturday afternoon, three teams of the ED conducted searches at three different locations — a residential property and two office spaces — belonging to the Bhujbal family. ED officials said that Sameer’s interrogation had pointed towards some documentary evidence pertaining to the case being found in these locations, following which the searches were conducted. Several sets of documents and other evidence were seized from the three locations and were currently being analysed, said officials.

The ED is currently trying to establish the trail of money in the case, tracing the companies and bank accounts through which the money was routed after it was siphoned from the funds that the state government had released for several construction projects in Mumbai.

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