A day after she was elected national president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar got relief in the Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank case on Friday, with a special court in Mumbai accepting a closure report filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in 2024. The case had brought under spotlight Pawar’s husband, late Ajit Pawar, companies linked to them, and over 70 others, including directors of cooperative banks.
Special judge Mahesh Jadhav accepted the C-summary closure report filed by EOW, stating that no criminal case is made out. The court also rejected the protest petitions filed by activist Anna Hazare, complainant Surinder Arora and others, as well as an application by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intervene. The detailed reasoning of the court is yet to be made available.
The probe in the case began following directives of the Bombay High Court in 2019, which was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Arora. On August 22, 2019, the court directed the EOW to file an FIR within five days. It was related to loans given to sugar factories by cooperative banks in the state, including the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank, where Ajit Pawar served as a director from 1995.
It was alleged that cooperative banks in the state disbursed large amounts of loans to sugar factories, without government guarantees and collateral securities, even after they turned non-performing assets, and the factories were then sold to companies linked to the relatives of the directors and members on the board of the banks, at low prices than the actual market value, causing losses to the state exchequer.
One of the key transactions under scrutiny was the sale of the Jarandeshwar Sugar Sahakari Karkhana in Satara. According to the investigators, the funds used to buy the factory came from two firms — Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt Ltd and Jay Agrotech. Deputy CM Sunetra was a director of Jay Agrotech till 2008, while Ajit Pawar’s uncle Rajendra Ghadge was a director of Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills.
The case has seen multiple reversals since 2020. During the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the EOW filed a closure report stating that no criminal offence had been committed. After the change of government in 2022, the EOW sought to reopen the probe. The investigating agency again changed its stance in 2024, months after Ajit Pawar joined the ruling alliance, stating that no offence had been made out and that the bank had recovered over Rs 1,343 crore from the loans.
The second closure report said 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. On the sale of the Jarandeshwar sugar factory, the EOW said that it was not at a throwaway price as alleged but it was sold at Rs 19 crore more than the reserve price. It also specified that when the transaction took place, Sunetra was not linked to Jay Agrotech as she was the director from April 1, 2004 to July 18, 2008 and not during the sale.
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“Ajit Pawar’s uncle Rajendra Ghadge was the director of Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills and his wife Sunetra Pawar was the director of Jay Agrotech, two years before the sale transaction. However, the sale of the sugar factory was done as per orders of the Bombay High Court in 2010 and the SARAFESI Act,” the EOW closure report filed through special public prosecutors Girish Kulkarni and Ajay Misar, accepted by the court on Friday, said.
Opposing the closure report were around 50 protest petitions, which said that the complaint was based on reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and other audit reports, which were not considered by the EOW. These petitions said that the investigators had not recorded statements of shareholders and employees of the sugar factories, and overlooked other proof.
In the related Enforcement Directorate (ED) case, Ajit and Sunetra were not chargesheeted, while his nephew and NCP-SP leader Rohit Pawar was named as an accused in July 2025. The closure report in the EOW case, may also subsequently mean that the ED case against Rohit Pawar and others cannot go on. The court on Friday also rejected an intervention plea filed by the ED.
Sunetra Pawar was on Thursday unanimously elected national president of the Nationalist Congress Party at the party’s national conference, weeks after the death of her husband and senior leader Ajit Pawar in a flight crash on January 28. Sunetra, was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister on January 31.
Sadaf Modak is a distinguished Legal Correspondent based in Mumbai whose work demonstrates exceptional Expertise and Authority in covering the intricacies of the judicial and correctional systems. Reporting for The Indian Express, she is a highly Trustworthy source for in-depth coverage of courtroom proceedings and human rights issues.
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