MSCB case: ED names NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar in fresh chargesheet
The ED case is based on a case filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, which had filed a closure report, stating that no criminal offence is made out
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Rohit, the grandnephew of Sharad Pawar and an NCP (SP) leader, had been summoned by the ED in 2024 in connection with the case and he had then appeared before the central agencyTHE ENFORCEMENT Directorate (ED) has named MLA Rohit Pawar as an accused in its latest chargesheet submitted before a special court in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB). It is learnt that the supplementary chargesheet was filed naming Pawar on Wednesday. The special court is yet to take cognizance of it.
Rohit, the grandnephew of Sharad Pawar and an NCP (SP) leader, had been summoned by the ED in 2024 in connection with the case and he had then appeared before the central agency.
The ED case is based on a case filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, which had filed a closure report, stating that no criminal offence is made out. It had specified that the in the transactions — linked to Rohit, his uncle, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and the Deputy CM’s wife Sunetra Pawar — no criminal act was found. The closure report, also filed in January 2024, is yet to be accepted by the court. The report said the EOW found that no financial losses were caused to the bank and so far, Rs 1,343.41 crore have been recovered by the bank from the loans given.
The ED has previously filed chargesheets in the case, naming 14 persons including former Maharashtra minister Prajakt Tanpure, his father Prasad Tanpure, former Congress minister Ranjeet Deshmukh, Subhash Deshmukh, industrialist Sameer Mulay, Arjun Khotkar and construction businessman Jugal Tapadia. The case relates to loans given to sugar factories allegedly without following procedure by officials of the MSCB even after they turned into Non-Performing Assets and their subsequent sale to kin of the accused below market value. Under suspicion are the sale of the factories and the alleged irregularities in the process. The ED’s probe was into the 2012 sale of Kannad SSK by Baramati Agro Pvt Ltd, a company headed by Rohit. The ED claims the sale of the sugar factory at Rs 50 crore showed significant undervaluing of the price, suspecting it to be the result of a manipulated auction.
The EOW had in its closure report said that an administrator was appointed by the government for functioning of the bank in 2011, after the bank’s board was dissolved. The EOW had said that there is no evidence to show that the sale was linked to the relatives of the director of the bank.
The probe in the case was initiated after a PIL was filed before the Bombay High Court into the alleged irregularities at the bank. A sugar factory, Jarandeshwar Sugar Sahakari Karkhana was operational in Satara and when its financial condition deteriorated, it was leased to Guru Commodity Services and further it was transferred to accused company Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills, with the initial complaint seeking to probe these aspects.
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