NCP leader Ajit Pawar is also Senior Deputy Minister of Maharashtra (Archive)
Bombay:
The Directorate of Enforcement has opposed a clean complaint delivered by the Mumbai Police to Senior Deputy Minister Ajit Pawar and others in connection with an alleged scam involving the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSC). The case became a political issue in the state last year, with Ajit Pawar appointed by the agency (and resigning as the MLA) just before the October Assembly elections.
The central agency has asked the Mumbai court not to accept the clean note presented by the police, whose FIR is called Ajit Pawar, and has submitted a request for intervention. If the police shutdown report is accepted, the agency’s money laundering case against the NCP leader also drops.
Last year, when the Directorate of Enforcement hired Sharad Pawar, he announced a visit to his Mumbai office even though he had not been summoned.
The proposed visit, seen by many as a gauntlet thrown at the central government, would have taken place just before he went out to campaign for the state elections and was designed to ensure that the agency could not summon him in the middle of his campaign.
The veteran politician eventually abandoned that plan at the request of both the agency and the Mumbai Police Commissioner. Pawar, who said he had nothing to hide, made the agency case a rallying point for his party.
Sharad Pawar and others were registered in a money laundering case in connection with the alleged MSC Bank scam that was valued at Rs 25 billion. The case was being investigated by the economic crimes wing of the Mumbai police, which had previously filed a closure report.
The money laundering investigation launched by the Directorate of Enforcement was based on the police FIR, which sparked a scandal last year.
NDTV reached out to Ajit Pawar for an answer, but the senior vice minister, who is in the hospital after contracting a COVID-19 infection, was unable to do so.
.
