President Patil's son issued notice over seizure of Rs 1 cr

Amravati: President Pratibha Patil’s son and Congress MLA Rajendra Shekhawat has been issued a notice by the district collector in connection with the seizure of Rs 1 crore unaccounted cash from Amravati, where civic polls are underway. Besides Shekhawat, notices were issued to minister of state Rajendra Mulak, MPCC general secretary Ganesh Patil, city Congress chief Vasantrao Saurkar and Mulak’s PA Ashish Bodhankar on Wednesday, District Collector Rahul Mahiwal said. [caption id=“attachment_215633” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“President Pratibha Patil’s son and Congress MLA Rajendra Shekhawat has been issued a notice by the district collector. Reuters”]  [/caption] He said the hearing will be held on 21 February as their counsels had sought five days time. Following the seizure of cash that was being transported in the city from Nagpur by two persons in a car on Sunday, the Election Commission had directed the district collector and municipal commissioner to file a report about the incident. Denying allegations that the seized cash was unaccounted, Shekhawat had claimed that the money was meant for distribution among financially weak candidates for the local civic polls. “I had sought funds from the state Congress Committee for distributing them among 87 party candidates as most of them are women and poor. Accordingly, Rs 1 crore was sent to me which was to be distributed at Rs 1 lakh per candidate and the rest (of the money) was meant for the district Congress committee,” Shekhawat had said. BJP had yesterday filed an intervention petition in the district court over the seizure. BJP city president Pradeep Shingore alleged that the seized money was unaccounted and Congress is trying to give an impression that it was a legal transaction as it was “caught in the act”. “Congress wins elections with money and then further indulges in corruption to recoup that money,” Shingore alleged. Polling for ten civic bodies, including Amravati, are underway in Maharashtra. PTI