The Mumbai Police has given a clean chit to Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, in an alleged Rs 25,000-crore cooperative bank scam. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, which is investigating the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) case, has said that no criminal offence is made out in the transactions allegedly linked to Ms Pawar and her husband.
The closure report states that the bank did not suffer any loss in the process of sanctioning loans to, or the sale of, the Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill, which is linked to Ajit Pawar. It said that Sunetra Pawar had resigned from the post of director of Jai Agrotech in 2008 and, two years later, the company gave Rs 20.25 crore to Jarandeshwar Sugar Mill.
The mill was then bought by a firm called Guru Commodity in an auction for Rs 65.75 crore but given on lease again to a company in which relatives of Ajit Pawar, including Rajendra Ghadge, were directors. Guru Commodity was given Rs 65.53 crore by this company as rent. The EOW said it found nothing illegal in these transactions.
The clean chit has come under fire from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), which is in an alliance with the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress in the state. Party leader Anand Dubey said the police’s action is proof that the opposition’s washing machine claim is completely justified.
Referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Mr. Dubey continued, “Cases, however, go on against opposition leaders and they are arrested even if they are chief ministers. But if they align with the BJP, they are made ministers, deputy chief ministers, and given Lok Sabha tickets.”
The Baramati Lok Sabha constituency will go to the polls during the third phase on May 7. Results will be out on June 4.
