Pawar: The BJP administration is “misusing” the ED to intimidate opposition politicians
Chief of the NCP (SP), Sharad Pawar, said on Monday that the government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was abusing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate to instill terror in the opposition leaders. He also referred to the ED as a “supporting party” of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In an interview with media in Pune, Pawar provided statistics on the operations of the ED from 2005 to 2023, asserting that just 25 of the 5,806 cases it recorded were resolved.
“The conviction rate is just 0.40 percent, while the disposal rate is 0.42%. The budget of the ED has increased from Rs 300 crore in 2022 to Rs 404 crore, according to the former Union minister.
“Two administrations, including the UPA, of which we were a member, held power between 2005 and 2023. The ED looked into 26 politicians under the UPA government, three of whom were from the BJP and five of whom were from the Congress. It demonstrates that the ED’s activity under the UPA government was not influenced by politics, but since 2014, not a single BJP politician has been questioned, according to Pawar.
The former Maharashtra chief minister said that these numbers cast question on whether the ED’s activities under the BJP administration were influenced by politics.
“It indicates that the ED has become a supporting party of the BJP,” he said.
“BJP leaders know about the ED’s actions in advance… looks like the orders come from the BJP,” Pawar said.
He said that while the ED was not abused during Manmohan Singh’s UPA regime, it is now being utilized to instill terror in the ranks of the opposition leaders.
Notably, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, has had the assets of a sugar factory owned by his firm seized by the ED.
After the ED inspected the locations of Rohit Pawar’s companies Baramati Agro Limited, Kannad Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Limited, and a few others in January, the agency also conducted two previous interrogations of Pawar.
