The Enforcement Directorate (ED) yesterday arrested four persons, including former Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation Commissioner Anil Pawar, suspended Deputy Director of Town Planning Y.S. Reddy, builder Sitaram Gupta and his nephew Arun Gupta, in connection with a money laundering case linked to the illegal construction of forty-one buildings on sixty acres of government and private land in Nalasopara reserved for public utilities.
The accused were taken into custody in Mumbai after joint interrogation and they will be produced before the PMLA Court today.
According to the ED, civic officials and private developers colluded to convert public land into private real estate, operating through a network of shell companies and bogus certificates. The investigation is ongoing.
