Not worried about guests at home, says Sharad Pawar on I-T raids

People will teach BJP a lesson for misusing agencies, according to NCP chief

PUNE: As Income Tax Department raids on firms owned by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s relatives and aides continued for the second successive day on Friday, both Mr. Pawar and his uncle, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar mocked the BJP Government at the Centre by remarking that they were not worried by the “guests at their home”.

Teams of I-T authorities have been raiding businesses, including sugar factories, and searching the houses of Mr. Ajit Pawar’s sisters in Kolhapur and Pune, as well as the Mumbai office of his son Parth Pawar. The raids have been on for nearly 30 hours.

Speaking in Solapur at a rally of NCP workers and office-bearers, Mr. Sharad Pawar took a jibe at the Modi Government at the Centre, stating: “I heard that the Centre sent some guests [I-T authorities] yesterday to Ajit Pawar’s place [firms linked to the Deputy Chief Minister’s kin]…but we are never worried about such guests.”