Ajit Pawar, wife Sunetra, nephew Rohit get clean chits in MSC Bank fraud case

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) closure report regarding the MSC Bank fraud case concludes that no cognizable offense was found. It affirms the legitimacy of the sugar factory sale, refuting any wrongdoing, and dismisses allegations against the Pawars.

In its closure report in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) case, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has specified that there is no criminal offence in the transactions allegedly linked to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his wife Sunetra Pawar and nephew Rohit Pawar.

In the report, the EOW has said that no financial losses were caused to the bank and so far, Rs 1,343.41 crore have been recovered by the bank from the loans given.

The EOW filed a closure report in January, stating that no offence is made in the MSCB case, details of which were made available on Tuesday. The case relates to allegations that loans were given to sugar factories by the MSC Bank, without following procedures. After they turned into non-performing assets, they were sold to the kin of those linked to the bank’s directors and others at lower than market price, it was alleged.

In its second closure report filed in the purported multi-crore fraud at the Maharashtra State Co-operative (MSC) Bank, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has stated that the information received, and the statements recorded by it did not reveal commission of any cognizable offence. Interestingly, the EOW has also not found anything incriminating in the material supplied to it by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding purchase of a cooperative sugar factory by Rohit Pawar’s Baramati Agro. Regarding the sale of Jarandeshwar Sufar Sahakari Karkhana, the report refuted the allegations of underpricing, stating that the “sale price exceeded the reserve price”.