04 March,2024 09:37 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Ajit Pawar/ File Photo
The Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has presented a closure report on the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank fraud, in which the state's Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar, is accused.
The scam is centred around an alleged illegal lending scheme of Rs 25,000 crore, in which district and cooperative banks supplied loans to sugar cooperative societies and other companies in the state, reported news agency ANI.
According to the report, Mumbai Police filed a 'C' summary report with the special court and the next hearing of the same will be held on March 15. A 'C' summary report is submitted when a case can neither be confirmed nor disproven.
The court will consider whether to accept the report or direct the agency to continue the investigation and prepare a charge sheet.
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Ajit Pawar, along with over 70 other persons who served as directors of MSC Bank during the relevant period, was accused of granting loans to sugar mills at significantly reduced rates and selling properties at remarkably low prices, in violation of banking regulations and Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the ANI report added.
As per the report, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), however, filed an intervention petition disputing the EOW's closure report.
This is not the first time EOW has filed a closure report. Mumbai Police, in 2020, when Ajit Pawar was the Deputy CM of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government, had filed a closure report in the Bombay Session Court. The ED even then had filed an intervention petition against the closure report, which prompted an investigation.
According to the ANI report, four people filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court regarding the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank scandal, which received public attention.
The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam case pertains to alleged fraudulent disbursal of loans amounting to Rs 25,000 crores to various sugar factories. The PIL filed in the HC, per the ANI report, disclosed the alleged fraudulent activities, saying that certain sugar mills defaulted on loans issued without due diligence. MSC banks later confiscated these mills and auctioned them off to various bank officers and politicians.
