New Delhi: Trouble has mounted for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police have filed an FIR against party leader Ajit Pawar and 69 others in the 1000 crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam.
Ajit Pawar is the son of the Sharad Pawar’s brother and a prominent leader of the NCP in Maharashtra. The FIR was filed after a Bombay High Court order and comes just before the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The court said on 22 August that there was credible evidence against the accused and ordered the EOW to file FIR against Pawar and the rest within five days.
The case pertains to causing a loss of Rs. 1000 crore to the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank by the decisions, actions and inaction of Ajit Pawar and the rest of the accused between 2007 and 2011.
An inspection was done National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) which found out that several banking laws and RBI guidelines were not followed while distributing loans to sugar factories and spinning mills and after default on repayment in the recovery of such loans.
The order by the Bombay High Court comes after local activist Surinder Arora filed a complaint with the EOW in 2015 and approached the court for filing an FIR.
In 2011 itself, the RBI, in lieu of NABARD’s findings, had directed to supersede the Cooperative Bank’s board of directors and appointed an administrator to look after its affairs.
