The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray in connection with cash-strapped IL&FS case. The agency has also asked Unmesh Joshi, son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi to appear before it to join the probe. The leaders have been asked to appear on Thursday.
The ED is probing the company's loan and equity investment of Rs 860 crore in one of the defaulters, Kohinoor CTNL. Kohinoor CTNL has been constructing Dadar's Kohinoor Square towers. The ED reportedly wants to question Thackeray on his exit from the group.
Sources told India Today that Thackeray and Joshi's names cropped out during a probe by ED. Source say that the ED is probing IL&FS' investment and shareholding in Kohinoor building in which Raj Thackeray along with Rajan Shirodkar and Joshi made a deal of Rs 421 crore.
The probe has revealed that the IL&FS group had invested Rs 225 crore in the company, following which, in 2008, the company surrendered its shares for only Rs 90 crore and booked a loss. The same year, Thackeray sold his shares and exited the consortium.
Furthermore, IL&FS advanced loans to Kohinoor CTNL that they allegedly failed to repay. In 2011, Kohinoor CTNL sold some commercial-residential premises to IL&FS and settled Rs 500 crore pending loan amount. Following this, IL&FS lent another Rs 135 crore to Kohinoor CTNL on which it defaulted.
Separately, a recent report by RBI stated that IL&FS may not have disclosed bad loans on its books for years despite a big part of its loan book having soured. "Unscrupulous, negligent and dormant management decisions," involving huge sums of public money indicate that the (former) board was completely incompetent, the RBI said in its inspection report. The RBI report, included in IL&FS's 737-page regulatory filing, sheds more light on what caused the IL&FS meltdown in late 2018.
Also read: IL&FS may not have disclosed bad loans for 4 years: RBI report
Also read: IL&FS crisis: ED files first chargesheet in the case; attaches assets worth Rs 570 crore