Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) legislator Rohit Pawar on Saturday refuted allegations of wrongdoing after he was named an accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) money laundering case. The Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency in Ahilyanagar district claimed that he was being targeted for political reasons and vowed to contest the matter legally, PTI reported.

Pawar was recently named in the chargesheet filed by the ED in a special court in Mumbai. The case stems from a 2019 first information report (FIR) by the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing, which alleged the fraudulent sale of cooperative sugar factories (Sahakari Sakhar Kharkhanas) by MSCB officials to private entities at undervalued prices.

One such unit, Kannad SSK in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, was acquired by Baramati Agro Ltd — a company linked to Pawar. The ED claims that the bank, seeking to recover an unpaid loan of Rs 80.56 crore, took possession of the mill in 2009 under the SARFAESI Act and later auctioned it in 2012 at a “very low” reserve price, based on a questionable valuation report.