​ED Questions NCP State President Jayant Patil: All About the IL&FS Case and the Chain of Commissions

After Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state president Jayant Patil is on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) case. According to sources, the names of other politicians are also likely to come up in this case.

While ED officials are tight-lipped, Patil is under the scanner in connection with commissions allegedly demanded as part of money laundering related to IL&FS.

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The probe dates back to 2008-2014, when the then Maharashtra government awarded contracts worth thousands of crores of rupees for infrastructure projects to build roads. Such contracts were also awarded to IL&FS which, in turn, were awarded to IFIN, from there to ITNL, a group company of IL&FS; And through them to various sub-contractors, which led to the involvement of politicians, sources said. Another source told CNN-News18 that during the transaction some contractors were favored and contracts were awarded in lieu of commission and this chain of commission led the ED to Patil. Sources said some sub-contractors allegedly paid the commission amount to people close to Patil.

According to sources, the contractors and sub-contractors have already been questioned, following which summons were issued to Patil. “I answered all the questions of the Enforcement Directorate officials. I cooperated with him while recording my statement. After questioning on Monday, Patil said, I have never done any wrong thing in my life.

Case

IL&FS went bankrupt in 2018, following which the ED took cognizance of the case in 2019 on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) lodged with the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police. The complaint was against IRL and ITNL.

IL&FS group companies had a total debt burden of over Rs 91,000 crore and had a series of defaults between June and September in 2018. These defaults threatened to collapse India’s money market.

A petition was filed in the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) probe against two companies headed by former auditors of IL&FS. However, this was recently struck down by the Supreme Court, which led to action against him under the Companies Act. This will also allow the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to inquire against them.

As soon as the order came, searches were conducted at the Mumbai offices of Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR & Associates, an Indian affiliate of global accounting firm KPMG, and two former auditors of IL&FS.

Political vendetta?

This development comes just weeks after Vikas Patil broke down in tears when NCP supremo Sharad Pawar announced his resignation. After Pawar’s resignation, Patil was seen as one of the top contenders to lead the party.

The visuals outside the NCP and ED offices, which are just a lane away, reflect Patil’s influence among the NCP cadre. Hundreds of workers from various parts of Maharashtra gathered to extend their support to Patil. The scenes were quite similar to the one when NCP spokesperson Nawab Mallick was arrested by the ED almost a year ago.

However, NCP workers and leaders have termed the ED’s summons as a “targeted attack on the central government”.

Responding to Patil’s query, Pawar indicated that the action against some of his party’s leaders could be the result of their refusal to meet the “expectations” of the ruling dispensation.

Several NCP leaders like Hasan Mushrif, Ajit Pawar, Nawab Mallick and Anil Deshmukh have been under the scanner of the central agency.