New Delhi, September 24
Ahead of the October 21 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Enforcement Directorate has filed a money-laundering case against NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar and others in connection with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam case, worth around Rs 25,000 crore, officials said on Tuesday.
They said an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent to a police FIR, had been registered by the central agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The case is based on a Mumbai Police FIR which had named former chairmen of the bank, ex-Deputy CM of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar and 70 former functionaries of the cooperative bank.
The ED’s move against the bigwigs came after the Bombay HC ordered the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police to probe and file cases against the Pawars and others in the matter. Following the EOW’s FIR in late August, the ED filed a case today.
Mumbai-based activist Surinder M Arora had approached the Bombay HC, demanding an investigation into the MSCB scam. Earlier this month, Ajit Pawar and others had moved the Supreme Court to quash the proceedings in the matter but Justices Arun Mishra and MR Shah declined the plea and instead asked the Mumbai Police to conduct a free and fair probe.
The ED said there were several irregularities in loans provided to the cooperative sugar factories (CSFs) by the MSCB officials, allegedly connected to the owners of the factories. The loans were sanctioned to the factories despite weak financials, negative net worth, collaterals not taken in many cases and additional facilities extended without any justification.
This and other factors resulted in many coop sugar factories turning sick while many were sold at lower than the reserve price for the benefit of buyers who were personally or politically connected with the MSCB directors, whose consent was not taken before the sales.
Besides, the ED said many transactions involved forged sales documents and many sales were effected without inviting tenders, thus flouting rules. “There was huge misappropriation of funds on the part of committee members, directors and loan committee members of the MSCB, acting in connivance to siphon the money and causing huge losses to the bank,” said the ED.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2mw1YgF
via Today’s News Headlines
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