Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Friday cancelled his plan to go to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai citing tense situation in State. The NCP chief dropped his plan after at the request of the ED and Mumbai Commissioner of Police Sanjay Barve.
“I have decided not to go to the ED office,” Pawar told reporters outside his house, detailing how he had been asked by the Enforcement Directorate as well as Mumbai police not to make the visit. “I don’t want to create law and order situation in the state… The decision was taken after deliberating with the party leaders,” Pawar said. “As such to avoid any problem and to avoid inconvenience to common people, I have decided not to go to ED office”.
The ED had registered a money laundering case against Pawar and others in connection with the alleged Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam. Pawar had announced his plan to visit the ED office on Friday afternoon. But hours before he was to leave his house on Bhulabhai Desai Road for the ED office a short distance away, the central agency sent him an email that there was no need for him to come. Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve followed up on the ED mail and also requested that he stay home.
Meanwhile, workers of NCP staged protests against the registration of a money laundering case against Pawar in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra. A shut-down was observed in Baramati, Pawar’s hometown.
