Sharad Pawar: The BJP government is’misusing’ the ED to intimidate opposition politicians

According to news agency PTI, NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar said on Monday that the government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was using agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) improperly to instill terror among opposition politicians. He also referred to the ED as a “supporting party” of the BJP.

In an interview with reporters in Pune, Sharad Pawar provided statistics on the operations of the Enforcement Department (ED) from 2005 to 2023, asserting that out of 5,806 cases that were reported, just 25 were resolved.

“The conviction rate is just 0.40 percent, while the disposal rate is 0.42%. The budget for the ED has increased from Rs 300 crore in 2022 to Rs 404 crore, according to the former Union minister, as PTI reported.

“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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and five of whom were from the Congress. It demonstrates that the action taken by the ED during the UPA government was not driven by politics, but since 2014, not a single BJP politician has been questioned,” Pawar said, according to reports.

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.

According to reports, Pawar said that “BJP leaders know about the ED’s actions in advance…looks like the orders come from the BJP.”

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.

“ED was not abused under Manmohan Singh, but it is now being abused to instill fear among the opposition leaders…During the election, ED is being abused to intimidate opposing party leaders. The ED looked into 26 politicians between 2004 and 2014, while the Congress-led UPA was in power. Of these, 5 were from the Congress and 3 were from the BJP. ED did not act politically under the UPA, but after 2014, it began acting politically as a personal grudge.The leader of the NCP (SP), “BJP leaders are aware of who ED will target in advance because ED has turned into the party that supports the BJP.”

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.