Senior Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Eknath Khadse, his wife Mandakini, and son-in-law Girish Chaudhari on June 27 appealed a special court in Mumbai to acquit them of the charges of alleged 2016 money laundering case related to a land deal in Maharashtra’s Pune district.
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Representing the Khadse family, advocate Swapnil Ambure filed their applications before special judge R.N. Rokade who was hearing cases of Ministers and political leaders. Mr. Khadse and his wife were present before the judge. Accepting the application, the special court has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a response on the appeal of the accused in the case.
After spending four decades with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Khadse stepped down from the party in 2016 after he was accused of his involvement in misusing his ministerial position to buy government land in an industrial area, Bhosari near Pune. The allegations made by the ED were that he bought the land for ₹3.75 crore when the actual worth of the land was ₹31.01 crore. Despite the charges against them, the ED never arrested Mr. Khadse and his wife in the case. However, Mr. Khadse’s son-in-law was arrested in July 2021, and after spending over two years in prison, he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
In 2020, Mr. Khadse joined the undivided NCP and although he declared his intention to return to the BJP in April this year, he was never officially accepted back into the party.