NCP chief Ajit Pawar is also Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister (File)
Bombay:
The Law Enforcement Directorate objected to a clear note given by the Mumbai police to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and others in connection with an alleged scam involving the state cooperative bank of Maharashtra (MSC). The affair became a political hot potato in the state last year, with Ajit Pawar being appointed by the agency (and resigning as an MP) just before the October assembly elections.
The central agency asked the Mumbai court not to accept the clear note submitted by the police – whose FIR names Ajit Pawar – and filed a request for intervention. If the police shutdown report is accepted, the agency’s money laundering case against the head of the NCP also falls.
Last year, when the Law Enforcement Directorate booked 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 glove thrown to the central government – was reportedly made just before he embarked on the election campaign for state polls and was intended to ensure that the agency could not summon him to the in the middle of his campaign.
The veteran politician ultimately abandoned this plan at the behest of the agency and the Mumbai Police Commissioner. Mr Pawar, who said he had nothing to hide, made the agency’s case a rallying point for his party.
Sharad Pawar and others have been registered in a money laundering case in connection with the alleged MSC Bank scam, valued at Rs 25,000 crore. The case was under investigation by the Economic Crimes Wing of the Mumbai Police, which had filed a closing report earlier.
The money laundering investigation launched by the Law Enforcement Directorate was based on the police FIR that had been all the rage last year.
GalacticGaming contacted Ajit Pawar for a response, but the chief deputy minister, who is in the hospital after contracting a COVID-19 infection, was unable to do so.
