BJP leader Kirit Somaiya accuses Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif of corruption

By PTI

MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on Monday accused NCP functionary and rural development minister Hasan Mushrif of indulging in corrupt practices and holding ‘benami’ entities through his family members and companies.

The NCP, a key constituent of the Shiv Sena-led MVA government, hit out at Somaiya and accused him of making baseless allegations against leaders of the ruling coalition. Addressing a press conference here, Somaiya alleged Mushrif and his family members created a web of companies and had transactions with Kolkata-based shell companies.

The former Member of Parliament from Mumbai claimed that financial transactions showed their bank accounts receiving income from companies which actually did not exist. Somaiya said he had submitted dubious financial transactions and “non- transparent” income details of the Mushrif family to the I-T department.

He demanded a multi-agency investigation, involving the income tax department, the ED and the ACB, into financial transactions worth Rs 100 crore carried out by the Mushrifs. NCP spokesman and state minister Nawab Malik hit out at Somaiya and accused him of making baseless allegations against MVA leaders.

”The court has discharged NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan case in which Somaiya had levelled allegations against him. No one takes Somaiya seriously now,” Malik said.

Last week, a special court in Mumbai discharged Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and seven others in the 2015 case related to alleged irregularities in the construction of Maharashtra Sadan (state government guest house) in Delhi.

Malik said there was nothing wrong in political leaders and their family members doing business that was legal. “In 2019, Hasan Mushrif was raided. If there is any wrongdoing (in that case), action will be taken,” Malik said.

In July 2019, the I-T department had carried out searches at the residence of Mushrif, then an MLA, and the sugar mill run by him in Kolhapur district over alleged discrepancies in the mill’s account books.