Sharad Pawar used Shahid Balwa's plane, alleges Maharashtra opposition leader

Leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra assembly Eknath Khadse today alleged that Union minister Sharad Pawar had travelled on a plane owned by a company of Shahid Balwa of DB Realty, under arrest in the second-generation spectrum allocation scam, to Dubai last year.

Making the allegation in the house during a debate on budgetary demands of the home department, Khadse said Pawar, his wife Pratibha, Punjab Cricket Association president IS Bindra, BCCI president Shashank Manohar and his wife Varsha had flown to Dubai on February 8, 2010 along with Balwa by Eon Aviation, a subsidiary of the DB group.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat and Vinod Goenka of Dynamix were also in the aircraft.

Claiming he had documents from the Air Traffic Control to prove the accusation, Khadse said if film financier Bharat Shah could be put behind bars for two years on the charge of talking to Dawood Ibrahim on telephone, why action should not be taken against Vinod Goenka, chairman of DB Realty, for his relations with the fugitive underworld don.

"Goenka is seen hugging Dawood at the marriage of his (Dawood) daughter in the wedding CDs," Khadse alleged.

Apart from Pawar and his wife, Khadse said, Union heavy industries minister Praful Patel and state rural development minister Jayant Patil, had also used Eon planes.

"Builder Jayant Shah, a close associate of former chief minister Ashok Chavan travelled by Eon Aviation aircraft to Nanded in January last year, while On February 1, 2010, Praful Patel and Dilip Deshmukh, brother of Union rural development minister Vilasrao Deshmukh flew to Nagpur."

Khadse alleged that on April 10 last year, Praful Patel travelled with Balwa and Goenka to Bangalore.

"What are their links with Balwa? I want to know whether they travelled on Eon Aviation planes with him or not," he said.

NCP was quick to rubbish Khadse's claims, with state spokesperson Madan Bafna telling PTI that Khadse was "in the habit of staying in limelight by making baseless allegations."

"By any means, Khadse wants to be in the news. This is why he has levelled such baseless allegations," Bafna said.

Earlier also, the opposition claimed its had "truckloads" of evidence linking Pawar with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim but no such thing has been proved, Bafna said.

Home minister RR Patil is likely to respond to the charges levelled by Khadse when he replies to the discussion on the budgetary demands of his department.

Pawar himself had also trashed accusations about his links with Balwa.

Referring to the attack by Shiv Sena cadres on Chhagan Bhujbal's bungalow (who was then leader of opposition in the Legislative council) in the 1990s, Pawar said Sena-BJP too had allowed such incidents to take place.

He said the state's financial position was better than what it was during the Sena-BJP rule.

"In the budget, I have not attempted populist announcements, but tried to focus on how to implement assurances made to the common people by the year-end," Pawar said.

Pawar also announced a hike in MLA fund from Rs1.5 crore to Rs two crore.

Later, talking to reporters Khadse said if Pawar did not know Balwa, how did he travel with him.

"I want to know from the government whether the information I have is true. They can check with the ATC," He said.

Khadse said Praful Patel had used the Eon Aviation for travelling to Tirupati on January 15 and Delhi on January 20 last year. He also travelled to Delhi on February 5, April 12 and May 8 and Gondia on April 14. Pawar had also travelled to Jaipur last year on May 16.

The main issue, Khadse said, was not that they used a commercial flight, but that Pawar had travelled with Balwa and Goenka.

Reacting to the charge, NCP legislator Jeetendra Awhad said even BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray had used the Eon Aviation flights.