Mumbai, Former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshis son and realty developer Unmesh Joshi has been summoned, along with his business partner Raj Thackeray, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), for a probe into an IL&FS related case, official sources said.
While the ruling ally Shiv Sena leader’s son appeared before the ED on Monday, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Thackeray has been asked to present himself in the ED headquarters here on Thursday.
The ED is investigating purported irregularities of the IL&FS’s loan and investments worth over Rs 850 crore in the Joshi-owned Kohinoor CTNL, a realty firm which is building the Kohinoor Squares Tower in Dadar west.
Joshi Junior’s company and its investments have already been under a scanner as it is among the prominent defaulters of IL&FS, estimated to be around Rs 135 crore.
Launched over a decade ago by Unmesh Joshi and Thackeray, and the latter’s associate, it was planning to buy the defunct Kohinoor Mills No. 3 for Rs 421 crore, in which the IL&FS had pumped in Rs 225 crore.
Suddenly, in 2008, the IL&FS reportedly backed off the deal and surrendered its shares for only Rs 90 crore, suffering a huge loss, and subsequently, even Thackeray exited after selling his shares.
Later, the IL&FS extended loans to Kohinoor CTNL on which it defaulted.
In 2017, the company entered an agreement to sell some commercial and residential properties in the upcoming Kohinoor Square Towers to IL&FS to settle its outstanding of around Rs 500 crore in loans.
Following this, IL&FS extended another Rs 100 crore to Kohinoor CTNL on which it defaulted.
Incidentally, Joshi’s Kohinoor Group, founded by his father and former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, which earlier controlled the Kohinoor CTNL, is now under control of another Prabhadevi-based company.
The ED’s move has attracted sharp criticism from the MNS spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana President Raju Shetti, who have termed it as a “witch-hunt” against Thackeray for attacking the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party governments in the Centre and state.
