ED loses Chhagan Bhujbal custody, court sends him to jail till March 31

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA court yesterday granted judicial custody to former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal till March 31 after turning down the Enforcement Directoratersquos ED request for police custody to interrogate Bhujbal further and confront him with the accusedAlso Read Chhagan Bhujbal complains of uneasiness doctors sent to ED officeBhujbal being taken to the special PMLA court yesterday PicPTIED had sought seven more days of custody for Bhujbal but judge P R Bhavke of the special PMLA court sent the senior NCP leader in judicial custody till March 31 saying ldquosufficient ground was not made out for further remandrdquo Bhujbal arrested on March 14 will be lodged in the highsecurity Arthur Road jail nowEDrsquos lawyer Hiten Vinegaokar asked for a sevenday custody telling the court that the crucial part of investigation ndash which was supposed to be carried out yesterday ndash could not be completed since Bhujbal kept complaining about his health As per Bhujbalrsquos request doctors from JJ Hospital and St George Hospital were called to check on him They opined saying he is fit and fineVinegaokar also told court that they have confronted Bhujbal with other witnesses namely Sunil Naik and Amit Balraj and the other accused his nephew Sameer Bhujbal ldquoIn his statement Amit has said he was threatened by Bhujbal to sign on certain papers We couldnrsquot get sufficient time to investigate so we sought a sevenday custodyrdquoED argued it needed Bhujbalrsquos further remand because he was to be confronted with statements of witnesses and he had refused to cooperate When he was informed that there was to be a facetoface confrontation meeting with the witnesses he complained of restlessnessBhujbalrsquos complaintsWhen the judge asked Bhujbal if he has any complaints he narrated how the ED had not recorded his statements even after he woke up at 730 am to do so He said the ED started interrogating him only after 930 amAt 1130 Bhujbal said he asked them to confront him with whomever they wished to but they didnrsquot ldquoEveryone was just sitting and ED was busy with their own work I told them we have to go to court today so why are you delayingrdquo Bhujbal saidHe added ldquoThese are all lies and concocted stories I have not pressurized anyone neither have I instructed anyone to do anythingrdquoRead Story BJP and NCP caught in the storm after Chhagan Bhujbals arrestCountering allegations against Bhujbal his lawyer Prasad Dhakephalkar argued that Bhujbal is 69yearsold and suffers from chronic asthma and is not a 25yearold man who will not have any health problem Dhakephalkar said Bhujbal has given certificates about his illnessldquoWhy has ED not mentioned this Rs 200 crore earlier even after having so much time to investigate According to the investigators the 69yearold accused complaining about his health is a waste of timerdquo Dhakephalkar said adding that the court should grant judicial custody as there is nothing in the remand copyED in its remand application said that statements of certain individuals closely connected with MET and business activities of the Bhujbals were recorded on Wednesday and they confirmed that huge cash was paid to market operators at MET office by Sameer Bhujbal Chhagan Bhujbalrsquos nephewThe firms controlled by Sameer conducted no genuine businesses so as to generate such huge revenues and only he and Bhujbal can explain the source of these funds ED said The witnesses also told the agency that Bhujbal visited the MET office in Mumbai once or twice a month and he was aware of all the business activities Sameer looked afterWhenever cash was brought to the MET office Sameer told Bhujbal about it if he was present Bhujbal was also aware of all the real estate purchases by the firms controlled by him it saidIt is yet to investigate why contractors involved in Maharashtra Sadan RTO office and Kalina library projects made huge donations to Chhagan Bhujbal foundation and if needed it would hold facetoface confrontation the ED said ED also said it had found evidence of cash generation of almost R200 crore and it was necessary to interrogate him to find its sourcemode of cash generationSeparate barracksMeanwhile Superintendent of Arthur Road jail BM Bhosale said Bhujbal was brought to the ArthurRoad jail at 630 pm and he has been kept in a secured barrack ldquoBhujbal and Sameer will not be in the same barrackrdquo Sameer as per sources is lodged in the first floor cell in the high security yard where Abu Jundal is also lodgedmdash Inputs from Agencies