Mumbai Police told the Bombay High Court that they have initiated a preliminary wnquiry against former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his kin on a complaint about alleged disappropriate assets.
Public Prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai informed this to the HC after a division bench of Justices Dheeraj Thakur and Valmiki Menezes reserved its order on a public interest litigation seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Thackerays for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income.
According to a report of PTI, The Thackerays sought dismissal of the PIL on the ground that it was filed on assumptions and without any factual foundation. The petition, filed by behaviour and soft skill consultant and city resident Gauri Bhide, sought a direction to the CBI and the ED to conduct a “thorough and impartial” investigation against Thackeray and his family.
However, in the afternoon session, Pai mentioned the matter once again to inform the court of the state government’s stand. The Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the allegations, Pai told the court.
Uddhav Thackeray’s counsel Aspi Chinoy objected to this and said it was an abuse of the process of law. Bhide, before filing the petition, had sent a letter to the Mumbai police commissioner on her allegations.