Land grab case: Two years later, SC grants bail to Eknath Khadse’s son-in-law

The Supreme Court granted bail to Chaudhari on conditions including that he will remain present for the trial. Chaudhari will be released from jail once the bail formalities are completed. On behalf of Chaudhari, it was submitted before the Supreme Court that there was an interim order passed by the High Court in the predicate offence filed in Pune, that no chargesheet should be filed in the case.

Chaudhari had argued that the ED’s action to arrest him in a case linked to the offence was not according to law. His lawyers had cited the Supreme Court order passed last year which said that in absence of a predicate offence, the money-laundering case cannot continue. The lawyers had also submitted that there was no prima facie offence made out against him for money-laundering and the issue of the land in Pune was a civil matter, not a criminal one.

The ED in its chargesheet filed in September 2021 named Khadse, his wife Mandakini, Chaudhari and three other companies. The ED had claimed that Khadse, using his official position and government machinery, manipulated the actual price of a land plot in Pune in 2016.