Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader from Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif, on Wednesday wondered whether the searches being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate were directed against people from a "particular caste and community".

The searches were conducted at multiple premises in Maharashtra as part of a money laundering investigation against Mushrif and others. The raids are understood to be linked to a probe related to alleged irregularities in the operations of some sugar mills based in the state that are linked to Mushrif, officials said.