Shiv Sena leaders meet Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray as Anil Parab faces ED's heat

Shiv Sena leaders on Thursday met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mantralaya after raids by the Enforcement Directorate on state minister Anil Parab.

Sena, which is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government comprising of NCP and Congress in Maharashtra, claimed that the raids on Anil Parab were "political revenge" and that this will strengthen the party's resolve to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sanjay Raut also accused BJP of misusing the central agencies and said that the MVA government stands with Parab.

"Such actions are being carried out to exact political revenge. You (BJP) have central agencies with you. If anyone thinks their political opponents will be destroyed by this, if anyone thinks that such acts will build pressure on the Shiv Sena or the Maha Vikas Aghadi, then it is wrong. Every action will only make our resolve stronger," the Rajya Sabha member said. 

Raut asserted that all elections in the state will go on smoothly. Polls of various civic bodies in the state are due soon.

The Rajya Sabha MP claimed that the BJP leaders have more severe charges against them than what Anil Parab and other leaders are being probed for.

ED raids Anil Parab in fresh PMLA case

On Thursday, ED raided several locations in Maharashtra in connection to a money-laundering probe against Parab and others in alleged irregularities in a land deal in Ratanagiri's Dapoli area and other charges.

The central agency has filed a new case against the minister and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The 57-year-old Parab, a three-time Shiv Sena legislator in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC), is said to be close to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

He is facing numerous charges of alleged anomalies and corruption that are comprehended to have formed the base of the latest ED case. In this case, the agency had also questioned the minister's personal secretaries.

Notably, Parab is the third Maharashtra minister on the federal agency's radar. The ED had earlier arrested state's minority affairs minister Nawab Malik and ex-state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in different money laundering cases.