After ED grilling, NCP’s Jayant Patil to meet Pawar; Thackeray calls

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party state President Jayant Patil will call on the party supremo Sharad Pawar a day after he was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money-laundering case linked with the IL&FS scam, here on Tuesday.

Party officials say that Patil is likely to apprise the party chief on the ED’s grilling session that lasted a whopping nine-and-half hour on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally Shiv Sena (UBT) President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called up Patil, though what transpired between them is not known.

It may be recalled that late Monday evening (May 22), Pawar had slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre for hounding opposition political leaders and the blatant misuse of central investigations agencies to pressurise them.

“Ten leaders of the NCP are currently facing action from the ED and other agencies… On the other hand, there were so many complaints against Param Bir Singh (ex-Mumbai Commissioner of Police)… That should also be considered,” said Pawar.

Citing the example of his senior party colleague and former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, he said nothing emerged out of Singh’s complaints of alleged corruption, but he (Deshmukh) had to unnecessarily spend 13 months in jail.

The Maratha strongman said that maybe the BJP has ‘certain expectations’ from the NCP (for such harassments), “but we are not going to satisfy them”, even as Patil was being quizzed by the ED sleuths.