The Enforcement Directorate recently registered a fresh money laundering case against Purushottam Chavan, husband of Maharashtra IPS officer Rashmi Karandikar.
Confirming the development, a source said the central agency’s fresh Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered under relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Chavan is based on two FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police in February this year pertaining to the two offences committed between March 2015 and April 2024. The central agency suspects that the accused laundered money for the purpose of defrauding innocent people and making wrongful gains.
In the first case of EOW, Chavan and 11 others are accused of allegedly duping 20 people of Rs 24.78 crore under the pretext of selling them government quota flats in Mumbai, Thane, and Pune at concessional rates using his influence in the government departments.
In the second FIR, Chavan is accused of defrauding a Surat-based businessman, Raosaheb Desai and others of Rs 7.42 crore. He allegedly accepted money from the businessman under the false pretense of selling plots from the government quota at a discounted rate. Also, he allegedly promised to assist the businessman in securing contracts for supplying T-shirts to the Maharashtra Police Academy in Nashik, but he never delivered on his promises.
In both these cases, Chavan was previously arrested by EOW.
Chavan has been in judicial custody ever since he was arrested by the ED in May last year in a Rs 263-crore income tax refund (ITR) fraud case.
Besides this, the Gujarat Police also arrested Chavan a few months ago in connection with a third cheating case.
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Chavan’s wife IPS officer Karandikar was earlier enquired by EOW about the details of Rs 2.5 crore she allegedly received from an ICICI bank account belonging to her accused husband. She has allegedly diverted this money to invest in share trading.
However, so far, she has not been named as an accused in the case, an EOW officer said.
The EOW last month has written to the Maharashtra DGP office seeking details if Karandikar had informed the department before making investment in the share trading.
“We are awaiting a report from the DG office. In case we find of share transactions which are not permitted as per the conduct rule, then we will be subsequently writing for a departmental action against Karandikar,” said a senior EOW officer.
Karandikar has already distanced herself from Chavan.
