Citing at least 2 instances of alleged ‘diversion of funds’ & 'conflict of interest' by the family members of Nationalist Congress Party, Chief Sharad Pawar & Maharashtra’s incumbent deputy CM, Ajit Pawar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently requested a Special Sessions Court not to accept the clean chit given by the Mumbai Police to over seventy politicians who are being probed in a money laundering case connected to the fraud caused to Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC)Bank.
Both the Mumbai Police & the Enforcement Directorate are investigating the role of over seventy politicians, including fifty from NCP, nine from Congress, two from Shiv Sena & one from BJP. While Ajit Pawar is named as an accused in the FIR, his uncle & NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar isn't named in the case registered by the city police. However, he is being probed by the ED.
Since the ED’s case under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act is based on the predicate offence registered by the Mumbai Police, the investigating agency is concerned that its case will collapse if the Court were to accept the city police’s closure report.
The case had become an issue during the 2019 legislative elections in Maharashtra, with Sharad Pawar offering to present himself before the ED for questioning. Messages sent to Ajit Pawar remained unanswered until press time.
In one such transaction, the ED’s inquiry has allegedly revealed a complex web of transactions for the purchase of an ailing cooperative sugar factory (CSF) besides conflict of interest as the sale took place at a time when Ajit Pawar was the director of the MSC Bank.
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According to the ED’s intervention application, which was reviewed by the news agency, the transaction relates to Jarandeshwar SSK, a cooperative sugar factory that took a loan from MSC Bank & in 2010 was sold through an auction by the bank under the Securitisation & Reconstruction of Financial Assets & Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act for around `65 crore.
The inquiry has allegedly revealed that the company, which won the bid, immediately leased out the unit to a company related to the maternal uncle of Ajit Pawar. It also received funds from a company in which Pawar’s wife Sunetra is a director.
The application states, “The said SSK was purchased by Guru Commodity Pvt Ltd & was immediately given to Jarandenshwar Sugar Mills Ltd, a newly-incorporated company, on lease for annual charges of Rs 12 lakh only. The director of Jarandeshwar Sugar is Rajendra Ghadge, who is maternal uncle of Ajit Pawar, the then director of the bank".
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“Further, scrutiny of the concerned bank account of Guru Commodity Services revealed that the funds utilised for the purchase of said SSK was mainly sourced from Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills. Further, scrutiny of the relevant account of Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills revealed the said funds (`20 crore) were received from Jay Agrotech Pvt Ltd, wherein Sunetra Pawar, AjitPawar’s wife, is a director.”
In another transaction concerning Baramati Agro Pvt, a company owned by NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of Sharad Pawar, the ED alleges that it has not only funded the earnest deposit of another firm, which participated in the bid to purchase an ailing CSF, but also funded its purchase through cash credit accounts of various banks sanctioned for the purpose of working capital requirement, thereby indulging in ‘diversion of funds’. The ED also states that directors of MSC Bank acted in violation of NABARD & Reserve Bank of India guidelines.
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