Buldhana MLA and president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) Harshwardhan Sapkal has alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) set fire to its own office in Mumbai to cover up its misdeeds.

“During the last ten years, the ED office was used to arrest political opponents, suppress their voice, harass them and throw them in jail, and force them to defect to the ruling parties. Now, the ED has burnt down its own office to claim that there is no evidence against them. This is the best example of a political conspiracy,” Sapkal told media persons here.

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The Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad and the party’s MP Supriya Sule also raised questions about the fire in the ED’s Mumbai office on Sunday (April 27, 2025) noon, despite assurances given by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that all files at the ED office have digital back-ups and hence there is nothing to worry about.

“The fire at the ED office is a very serious matter. How did the fire begin? Why was it not extinguished on time? Who should be held accountable? There is so much artificial intelligence and technology. So if this file gets burned, it must have a digital backup. If that is not the case, it is shocking. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will have to answer,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP MP Supriya Sule said.

“The public will definitely doubt whether the fire in the ED office was started deliberately or not. Once there was a fire in the ministry. It was caused by a short circuit. However, the opposition party at that time, which happens to be the present ruling party, had claimed that the fire in the ministry was started by the then Chief Minister himself. At that time, they had claimed that several files were burned. Several files were present in the ED office,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad said.

“The then opposition party and the current ruling party were making bombshell claims that the fire that broke out in the ministry due to a short circuit was set on the sixth floor by the then Chief Minister. Now there is room to say. Their leaders, who were previously on the other side, got caught by the ED and joined the ruling party. So there is room for suspicion that is the reason why the fire must have been started,” said Jitendra Awhad.

The fire had broken out on Sunday morning in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Zone-1 office located in Ballard Estate, in South Mumbai. The blaze continued for almost ten hours, before it was detected, raising concerns that investigation records for several high-profile cases including those of fugitive businessmen Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, as well as politicians Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh, might have been destroyed.

While there has been uncertainty about the impact on ongoing investigations, major damage has been reported to the ED’s office infrastructure, including its computers and documentation. The ED has submitted original investigation records of cases with filed chargesheets to the court, retaining copies with it. The incident is expected to impact the questioning of witnesses summoned by the ED for statements.

Speaking to the media about the fire in the ED office, Mumbai’s Chief Fire Officer Ravindra Ambulgekar said, “This is a government office. Files, cupboards and wooden furniture caught fire. The cause behind the fire will be ascertained only after an investigation. The fire fighting operation took less time, but it took time for the office to cool down”.

The ED issued a statement regarding the fire that broke out on the fourth floor of the Mumbai Divisional Office-1 located in the Kaiser-e-Hind Building at Ballard Estate around 2.15 pm on Sunday.

According to the ED, its offices on the ground floor and first floor of the Kaiser-e-Hind building are functional. The part of the office on the fourth floor that was burnt has been shifted. It now functions from its old regional office at Janmabhoomi Chambers. The ED said that the fire was first detected by its office staff and security guards.

The fire was extinguished around 3:30 pm on Sunday with the help of more than 50 personnel and several fire engines. The ED stated that it is in the process of setting up a separate office for itself at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai after the Maharashtra government allotted land to the agency in March.