Former Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse is accused of generating Rs 50 lakh tainted money and layering it before routing it to his wife’s bank account for the purchase of controversial MIDC land fraudulently.
A charge sheet is filed by the Enforcement Directorate against him recently. Khadse was revenue minister in 2016. During his tenure, he manipulated the record and purchased a government plot for his wife and son-in-law.
Khadse was accused by the ED for layering Rs 50 lakh which he had received from various sources, including Rs 15 lakh cash, from his bank account to that of his wife, and then claimed it as untainted to finally utilised Rs 38 lakh to purchase the MIDC land. Layering conceals the source of the money through a series of transactions and bookkeeping tricks. It is one of the steps that is done in the process of money laundering.
An expenditure of a total of Rs 5.53 crore was spent by Khadse for the land transaction and out of the total expenses, Mandakini raised Rs 2.38 crore. Out of this, Rs 2 crore she got from a shell company, Benchmark Buildcon Pvt Ltd, as an unsecured loan and Rs 38 lakh of Rs 50 lakh she received from Khadse.