Overview

• The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at 12 locations linked to former VVMC commissioner Anil Pawar, recovering ₹1.33 crore in unaccounted cash and seizing property papers, digital devices and documents.
• Pawar and six relatives or associates have been summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to explain sources of the seized funds.
• These operations mark the third phase of an ongoing probe that previously netted ₹8.6 crore in cash, ₹23.25 crore in jewellery and froze ₹12.71 crore in bank assets.
• Investigators allege a fixed-bribe cartel of senior and junior civic officials, architects, chartered accountants and liaison agents enabled approval of 41 unauthorised buildings on land reserved for sewage treatment and dumping.
• The ED is examining shell companies and benami transactions to trace illicit financial flows as the money laundering inquiry continues.