Filing cases, arresting Opposition leaders Centre's flagship project: Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that filing cases and arresting Opposition leaders seem to be the flagship project of the Centre.

If you check today's newspaper, it has detailed how Central probe agencies have increased their actions against Opposition parties and leaders. It seems that filing cases and arresting Opposition leaders are the flagship project of the Centre.

"Whenever they have some doubts about the outcome of an election, such steps are taken as an important work. The key issues and challenges before the society are kept aside, Pawar told reporters here in a swipe at BJP-ruled Centre.

We will respond to it politically, said the NCP chief.

A prime witness in Mumbai's Patra 'chawl' redevelopment project case has told the Enforcement Directorate, probing the related money laundering, in which Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut is an accused, that during 2008-09 some residents of the area had approached NCP chief Sharad Pawar through local politicians for the redevelopment of the chawl (tenement).

After various meetings, Sanjay Raut and Pravin Raut, along with Rakesh Wadhawan, of HDIL (Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd) were asked to handle the project, she told the ED, which has filed a supplementary charge sheet.

Before the 2019 Assembly polls, the Enforcement Directorate had served a notice to Pawar.

But the agency later said that Pawar's presence was not required for the inquiry.