Mumbai, Apr 7 The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday urged a court here to decide the discharge applications of NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar and others in the alleged Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam on merit following the recent acceptance of closure report in a related case.
The ED registered its money laundering case on the basis of an August 2019 FIR filed by the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The First Information Report alleged fraudulent sale of SSKs (Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana or cooperative sugar mills) by the then officers and directors of the MSCB at throwaway prices to their relatives/private persons without following due procedure.
But the EOW later filed a closure report in the alleged Rs 25,000 crore scam citing a lack of evidence, which a special court for MPs/MLAs cases recently accepted.
Rohit Pawar and 11 others named as accused in the ED's case then sought discharge from the money laundering case.
In its reply, the central agency said that while the closure report was accepted by the lower court, a 2021 writ petition challenging earlier rejection of the ED's intervention application was still pending before the Bombay High Court.
The ED, which had submitted prosecution complaints against 17 persons, urged the special court to decide the discharge applications on merit.
The alleged scam pertained to disbursal of loans to cooperative sugar factories, spinning mills and other entities by district and cooperative banks without following norms. The MSCB is Maharashtra's apex cooperative bank.
The state exchequer suffered losses of Rs 25,000 crore between January 2007 to December 2017 due to irregularities in disbursal of loans.
